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A  gamble 


IN 


\\/onderland 


BEING 


A   DESCRIPTION  OF   THE  MARVELOUS  REGION 

TRAVERSED  BY   THE  NORTHERN 

PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 


BY 


ALBERT    J3,    (,-UPTILL 


. 


ILLUSTRATED 

FROM  PHOTOS.  BY   HAYNES. 


COPYRIGHTED,   1892, 

BY   CHAS.  S.  FEE,  GENERAL   PASSENGER   AND   TICKET   AGENT, 
NORTHERN    PACIFIC    RAILROAD,  ST.  PAUL. 


F5 

.73 
If 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Geysers  and  Falls  of  the  Yellowstone  National  Park,  .....         J-'mntispitce. 

Sleeping  and  Dining  Cars,  .     opposite  page     12 

Mammoth  Hot  Springs  Hotel,  15 

"  Old  Faithful,"     .  22 

On  Yellowstone  Lake,          _________  25 

Ticket  Agents'  Yellowstone  Park  Special,  "        32 

Hotel  Broadwater,  Helena,  on  N.  P.  R.  R.,  35 

Office  of  Hotel  Broadwater,     .._.....  "42 

Parlors,  Hotel  Broadwater,  ' '        45 

Broadwater  Natatorium,           _  48 

Interior  View  Broadwater  Natatorium,           _  51 

Hydraulic  Mining  on  the  Jefferson  River,  Montana,  ...                                           58 

Lake  Pend  d'Oreille,  Northern  Idaho,  M 

Yakima  River  and  Canon,  Washington,     _  64 

Snoqualmie  Falls,  Washington,    ........  67 

Wheatfield  in  the  Cowlitz  Valley,  Washington,  "         74 

Puget  Sound  Forest,            _  77 

Puyallup  Valley  Hop  Fields,  Washington,  80 

Street  View  in  Tacoma,  Washington,   _  "83 

South  Bend,  Washington,         ....  M 

Driving  on  the  Beach  at  Edgewater,  Washington,  89 

Bathing  on  North  Pacific  Coast,  Washington,  92 

Muir  Glacier,  Alaska,           ....  95 

Face  of  Muir  Glacier  from  the  Top,  98 

Queen,  at  Glacier  Bay,  101 


INTRODUCTORY. 


HEN  migrating,  some  fifteen  years  since,  from  the 
fog-enveloped — though,  at  times,  picturesque — shores  of 
Eastern  Maine  to  the  breezy  and  flowery  prairies  of 
Minnesota  and  North  Dakota,  I  fortunately  brought 
with  me  from  the  old  New  England  hills  an  innate  love  of  rod 
and  gun  that  has  proven  a  never-failing  panacea  for  the  dys- 
peptical tendencies  of  office  drudgery;  annually  taking  me,  as  it  has, 
upon  more  or  less  extensive  rambles  mid  the  dancing  rapids  of 
trout-brooks,  the  froth-flecked  eddies  of  salmon-streams,  and  the 
sedgy  retreat  of  bass,  pike,  pickerel,  and  muskallonge;  among  golden 
"stubbles"  —  habitat  of  the  timorous  grouse  —  and  prairie-lakes  that 
echo  the  autumnal  quack  of  wild  duck  and  honk  of  wild  goose;  or 
mid  forest-aisles  and  mountain-glens,  silent  save  for  the  occasional 
scream  of  the  cougar  and  the  warning  "whistle"  of  the  stately  elk. 
These  outings,  besides  supplying  healthful  recreation,  oftentimes 
afford  excellent  opportunity  for  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  Nature  and  her 
ways,  and  the  gathering  of  material  for  sketch-writing,  for  which  I  confess  a 
fondness. 

A  combination  of  these  influences  recently  led  me  to  make  an  extended 
tour  of  the  charming  region  traversed  by  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad,  with 
a  view  to  attempting  a  description  of  its  characteristics  of  surface,  soil,  and 
climate,  its  variety  of  resource,  its  scenic  attractiveness,  and  other  features  of 
general  interest  —  an  effort  to  which  the  following  pages  are  in  the  main 
devoted. 


(9) 


A  Ramble  in  Wonderland. 


CHAPTER  I. 

EARLY  IMPRESSIONS  RESPECTING  THE  FAR  WEST,  THE  RESULT  OF  A  COM- 
BINATION OF  UNFORTUNATE  CIRCUMSTANCES  AND  KINDRED  DISORDERS 
— THE  GREAT  AND  GROWING  WEST  OF  TO-DAY. 

JROM  early  boyhood,  that  portion  of  the  United  States — com- 
monly denominated  "Our  Northern  Border" — extending 
westward  from  Lake  Champlain  to  the  snowy  summits  of  the 
Cascade  Mountains,  and  the  blue  waves  of  Puget  Sound,  just 
beyond,  has,  in  connection  with  those  alleged  barren  wastes — 
termed,  in  the  nasal  vernacular  of  my  native  heath,  "The 
Boundless  Peeraries  of  the  Far  West" — possessed  an  irresistible  charm  for  me; 
so  much  so,  that  when  my  eyes  would  grow  weary  with  watching  the  white 
sails  of  ocean-rovers  plying  in  the  coastwise  commerce  of  Bay  of  Fundy  sea- 
ports, or  the  sullen  roar  of  breaking  waves  oppress  me  with  a  sense  of  dull 
monotony,  the  tales  of  adventure  upon  lake  and  prairie,  in  forest  glade  and 
mountain  fastness,  as  told  by  the  entertaining  romancer  of  "Sunnyside,"  and 
the  no  less  delightful  biographer  of  "  Leatherstocking,"  were  wont  to  trans- 
form the  puny  fisher-lad  into  a  hardy  Western  pioneer,  clothe  him  in  belted 
buckskin  and  beaded  moccasin,  thrill  his  soul  with  the  melody  of  the  rollicking 
boat-songs  of  the  Canadian  voyageur,  and  breathe  into  his  drowsy  brain  dreams 
of  conquest,  in  which  the  feathered  scalp-lock  of  the  hated  Mingo  played  no 
unimportant  part. 

Happily,  these  thoughts  were  but  the  fanciful  imaginings  of  a  childhood 
barren  of  adventure,  yet  craving  its  spice,  soon  to  be  dispelled  by  the  fuller 
knowledge  that  the  days  when  the  red  man  disputed  the  onward  march  of 
civilization  had  long  since  been  numbered,  and  were  remembered  only  as 
marking  occurrences  of  historic  interest;  that  where  clustering  wigwams  once 
dotted  the  shores  of  the  Great  Lakes,  and  dusky  warriors,  on  mischief  bent, 
danced  about  blazing  camp-fires,  great  and  growing  cities  had  sprung  into 


12  A    RAMBLE   IN    WONDERLAND. 

being;  that  the  birchen  canoe  had  given  place  to  the  steam-barge,  and  forest 
aisles  that  used  to  ring  with  the  quavering  war-cry,  had  for  a  generation 
echoed,  instead,  the  shrill  neigh  of  the  iron-horse.  But  shattered  as  had  been 
my  dearest  and  most  cherished  idols,  I  little  dreamed,  as  I  used  to  read,  again 
and  again — "In  the  vaunted  regions  of  the  far  west,  several  hundred  miles 
beyond  the  Mississippi,  extends  a  vast  tract  of  uninhabited  country,  where  there 
is  neither  to  be  seen  the  log-house  of  the  white  man  nor  the  wigwam  of  the 
Indian.  It  consists  of  great,  grassy  plains,  interspersed  with  forests  and 
groves  and  clumps  of  trees,  and  watered  by  the  Arkansas,  the  grand  Canadian, 
the  Red  River,  and  their  tributary  streams.  Over  these  fertile  and  verdant 
wastes  still  roam  the  elk,  the  buffalo,  and  the  wild  horse,  in  all  their  native 
freedom.  These,  in  fact,  are  the  hunting-grounds  of  the  various  tribes  of  the 
far  west.  Hither  repair  the  Osage,  the  Creek,  the  Delaware,  and  other  tribes 
that  have  linked  themselves  with  civilization  and  live  within  the  vicinity  of 
the  white  settlements.  Here  resort,  also,  the  Pawnees,  the  Comanches,  and 
other  fierce,  and  as  yet  independent  tribes,  the  nomads  of  the  prairies,  or  the 
inhabitants  of  the  skirts  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  The  regions  I  have  men- 
tioned form  a  debatable  ground  of  these  warring  and  vindictive  tribes;  none  of 
them  presume  to  erect  a  permanent  habitation  within  its  borders.  Their 
hunters  repair  thither  in  numerous  bodies  during  the  season  of  game,  throw  up 
their  transient  hunting-camps,  consisting  of  light  bowers  covered  with  bark 
and  skins,  commit  sad  havoc  among  the  innumerable  herds,  that  graze  the 
prairies,  and  having  loaded  themselves  with  venison  and  buffalo-meat,  warily 
retire  from  the  dangerous  neighborhood,  *  *  *  *  as  yet  un- 
explored by  white  men  "*— that  it  would  be  impossible  for  me,  in  my  day,  to 
make  just  another  such  tour  of  exploration  as  that  concerning  which  Mr. 
Irving  wrote  so  entertainingly,  enjoy  hunting  the  buffalo  and  the  wild  horse, 
as  he  is  alleged  to  have  done,  and,  subsequently,  from  the  inspiring  precincts 
>f  some  New  England  literary  "den,"  surrounded  by  trophies  of  the  chase- 
by  horn  of  elk  and  hide  of  bear,  the  stuffed  counterfeits  of  the  coyote, 
the  beaver,  the  sportive  little  prairie-dog,  and  the  jackass-rabbit— pour  into 
the  large  and  attentive  ear  of  a  self-contained  and  credulous  community 
similar  impressions  respecting  these  identical  "  wastes."  And  if  not,  why  not? 
Consider,  for  a  moment,  that  my  ideas  of  the  great  world's  progress  were 
such  as  were  measurable  by  the  standard  exemplified  by  the  little  world  in 
which  I  lived;  were  such  as  were  "  taught  how  to  shoot "  during  an  occasional 
the  "deestrik  skule,"  under  the  eye  and  the  rod  of  the  Rev.  Amaziah 
Greathead,  of  blessed  memory,  or  gleaned  from  the  chance  publications  that 
m  my  way.  Among  these  latter,  I  recall  Geography  Made  Easy,  by 
Jiah  Morse,  in  1816;  a  copy  of  Mr.  Joshua  Billings'  Almanax;  two  volumes 
*  Irving'*,  A  Tour  on  the  Prairies. 


MAMMOTH    HOT   SPRINGS   HOTEL,  YELLOWSTONE    NATIONAL   PARK. 


A    RAMBLE    IN    WONDERLAND.  15 

of  United^States  Patent  Office  Reports;  The  Life  and  Missionary  Labors  of 
Captain  Kidd,  and  a  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  of  uncertain  antiquity,  but 
teeming  with  such  intellectual  pabulum  as  the  following:— 

"  Grass  for  our  cattle  to  devour, 

He  makes  the  growth  of  ev'ry  field; 

Herbs  for  man's  use,  of  various  pow'r, 

That  either  food  or  physick  yield. " 

Consider,  again,  that  my  other  patron  saint  of  American  literature,  Feni- 
more  Cooper,  apparently  looked  upon  the  region  stretching  westward  from  the 
"  Father  of  Rivers "  to  the  rugged  peaks  of  the  Rockies  as  presenting  an 
enigma  impossible  of  solution  by  the  husbandman,  as  witness  the  following 
excerpt  from  his  introduction  to  The  Prairie: — 

The  American  prairies  are  of  two  kinds.  Those  which  lie  east  of  the 
Mississippi  are  comparatively  small,  are  exceedingly  fertile,  and  always  sur- 
rounded by  forests.  They  are  susceptible  of  cultivation,  and  are  fast  becom- 
ing settled.  They  abound  in  Ohio,  Michigan,  Illinois  and  Indiana. 

The  second  description  of  these  natural  meadows  lies  west  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, at  a  distance  of  a  few  hundred  miles  from  that  river,  and  are  called  the 
Great  Prairies.  They  resemble  the  steppes  of  Tartary  more  than  any  other 
known  portion  of  the  world;  being,  in  fact,  a  vast  country,  incapable  of  sus- 
taining a  dense  population,  in  the  absence  of  those  two  great  necessaries — 
wood  and  water.  Rivers  abound,  it  is  true;  but  this  region  is  nearly  desti- 
tute of  brooks  and  the  smaller  water-courses  which  tend  so  much  to  comfort 
and  fertility. 

The  origin  and  date  of  the  Great  American  Prairies  form  one  of  nature's 
most  majestic  mysteries.  The  general  character  of  the  United  States,  of  the 
Canadas,  and  of  Mexico,  is  that  of  luxuriant  fertility.  It  would  be  difficult  to 
find  another  portion  of  the  world,  of  the  same  extent,  which  has  so  little  useless 
land  as  the  inhabited  parts  of  the  American  Union.  Most  of  the  mountains 
are  arable;  and  even  the  prairies  in  this  section  of  the  republic  are  of  deep 
alluvion.  The  same  is  true  between  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  the  Pacific. 
Between  the  two  lies  the  broad  belt  of  comparative  desert  which  is  the  scene  of  this 
tale,  appearing  to  interpose  a  barrier  to  the  progress  of  the  American  people 
westward. 

Considering  all  this,  and  the  further  fact  that  the  gray  matter  of  my  cere- 
brum and  cerebellum  was,  in  those  days,  nourished  physically  with  whale-on- 
toast,  and  mentally  with  such  great,  hard  chunks  of  misinformation,  is  it  any 
wonder  that  I  soon  became  afflicted  with  a  well-defined  and  robust  case  of 
hydrocephalus,  aggravated  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  by  acute  mental 
strabismus  ? 

Some  lynx-eyed  student  of  historic  precedent — whose  name  and  post-office 
address  I  can  not,  at  this  moment,  recall — has  arisen  to  remark,  that  "the 
fortunate  demise  of  men  often  insures  them  statues  of  heroic  mold." 

As  I  write  these  lines,  the  thought  occurs  to  me,  that  were  I  of  kith  or  kin 
to  the  illustrious  writer  of  fiction  herein  referred  to,  I  should  embrace  the 
recurrence  of  next  November's  turkey-festival  as  a  fitting  occasion  for  offering 


16  A    RAMBLE   IN    WONDERLAND. 

up  a  heartfelt  pean  of  thanksgiving  that  an  all-wise  Providence  permitted  him 
to  quit  this  vale  of  tears  in  1851;  at  the  zenith  of  his  fame  as  the  creator  of 
impossible  Indian  characters,  and  self-constituted  prophet.  Had  not  the 
remorseless  reaper  gathered  him  in  thus  opportunely,  he  might  have  posed  as 
the  Indian  Messiah  in  1890,  or  been  tenderly  laid  to  rest  in  the  bottomless  pit  of 
political  oblivion,  by  a  farmers'  legislature  of  populous  Kansas,  a  little  later  on. 

Verily,  "There's  a  divinity  that  shapes  our  ends,  rough  hew  them  as 
we  will." 

But  enough  of  autobiography,  and  enough  of  individual  criticism,  gentle 
reader,  enough!  Suffice  it  to  be  said  that  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  "the 
broad  belt  of  comparative  desert  extending  westward  from  the  Mississippi  to 
the  Rocky  Mountains,"  covering  a  period  of  fifteen  years,  according  to  the 
Julian  calendar,  has  been  ample  to  convince  me  that,  had  the  lares  and  penates 
of  the  paternal  household  been  modeled  rather  more  after  Mr.  Lemuel  Gulliver 
of  Newark,  and  a  trifle  less  after  the  possibly  well-intentioned  but  positively 
misinformed  Jedidiah  Morse  of  Massachusetts,  and  one  James  Fenimore 
Cooper  of  New  York,  I  should  have  found  myself,  at  the  age  of  majority, 
better  qualified  to  pass  a  creditable  examination  touching  the  physical  features 
of  North  America  in  general,  and  of  the  fair  and  fruitful  Basin  of  the  Missis- 
sippi in  particular. 

To  the  poor  and  weary  pilgrim  traveling  from  afar — say  from  about  as  far 
as  the  stump-embossed  and  stone-bestrewn  soil  of  Eastern  Maine;  the  sand- 
dunes  of  Cape  Cod  (fish);  the  poor  farms  (literally)  of  New  Hampshire  and 
Vermont;  the  sterile  clay-beds  of  Connecticut,  or  the  Jersey  Flats — a  bird's- 
eye  view,  in  this  year  of  grace,  and  in  the  rosy  month  of  June,  of  the  vast 
region  watered  and  drained,  alike,  by  the  majestic  Mississippi  and  its  numerous 
affluent  streams,  both  great  and  small,  can  only  be  likened  to  a  soul-inspiring 
glimpse  of  the  apple-orchard  of  ancient  Eden,  in  full  bloom. 

True,  a  landscape  that  once  presented  only  a  monotonous  succession  of 
forest  and  meadow,  lake  and  river,  hill  and  dale,  has  been  greatly  beautified  by 
the  conversion,  here  and  there,  of  the  rich,  dark  prairie  loam  into  cultivated 
fields;  by  the  erection  of  modern  homes  and  neat  and  commodious  farm-build- 
ings; by  the  upbuilding  of  thriving  villages  and  large  centers  of  commerce;  by 
the  construction  of  railways  for  overland  transportation,  and  steamboats  for  lake 
and  river  navigation,  and  the  thousand  and  one  other  processes  of  develop- 
ment that  tend  to  add  warmth  and  animation  to  the  picture;  yet  these  inevit- 
able results  of  American  progress  ought  not  to  have  escaped  the  imaginative 
eye  of  him  who,  fifty  years  agone,  gazed  upon  the  naked  canvas,  ere  the  limner 
had  essayed  to  portray  in  bold  outline,  even,  the  grand  and  glorious  picture  of 
the  future. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  the  succeeding  chapters  of  this  little  volume  to  present 
a  type-sketch — embellished  by  illustration — of  the  dominant  features  of  soil 


A  RAMBLE  IN  WONDERLAND.  1? 

and  climate,  diversity  of  resource,  and  scenic  beauty  of  the  vast  northern  belt 
of  forest,  prairie,  mountain,  and  vale,  traversed  and  made  easily  accessible  by 
that  great  continental  thoroughfare— the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad— and  ex- 
tending from  the  picturesque  margin  of  Lake  Superior  through  Wisconsin, 
Minnesota,  North  Dakota,  Montana,  Idaho,  Washington  and  Oregon — two 
thousand  miles  and  more — to  Puget  Sound  and  the  famed  and  fruitful  Valley 
of  the  Willamette  (Wil-lSm-6t). 

With  this  end  and  aim,  I  shall  first  discuss  the  general  topography  of  this 
extensive  and  remarkable  region;  beginning  with  the  twin  termini  of  the 
gigantic  railway  in  question,  situate  upon  the  historic  shores  of  the  "Shining 
Big-sea-water,"  endeared  to  all  the  world  by  the  charming  legend  of  Hiawatha; 
journeying  thence  along  the  trail  of  the  buffalo,  the  elk,  and  the  "  prairie- 
schooner," 

"  To  the  kingdom  of  the  West- wind, 
To  the  portals  of  the  Sunset;" 

reserving  for  later  narration  events  incident  to  the  rambling  outing  already 
alluded  to,  and  which  was  undertaken  with  special  reference,  aside  from  a  desire 
to  renew  acquaintance  with  the  gamy  and  toothsome  mountain-trout,  to  the 
collecting  of  data  and  statistics  relative  to,  and  the  securing  of  a  series  of 
landscape  photographs  illustrative  of,  the  Rocky  and  Cascade  Mountains,  the 
Basin  of  the  Columbia  River,  and  the  Pacific  Coast. 


CHAPTER   II. 

THE  NORTHWESTERN  PRAIRIE  STATES — THEIR  SOIL,  CLIMATE,  PRODUCTIONS 
— COMMERCE — PRINCIPAL  TOWNS— HEALTH  AND  PLEASURE  RESORTS 
— HUNTING  AND  FISHING  GROUNDS. 

WISCONSIN. 

Y  WAY  of  general  description,  it  may  be  said  that  the  entire 
surface  of  the  State  is  a  vast  rolling  plain  —  from  600  to  1,500 
feet  in  altitude  —  varied  only  by  bluffs  along  the  borders  of 
rivers  and  lakes,  of  which  latter  there  are  many,  particularly 
in  the  central  and  northern  portions.  They  are  from  one  to 
twenty  square  miles  in  extent,  usually  margined  by  high  banks 
of  great  natural  beauty.  As  a  rule,  their  waters  are  clear,  cold  and  deep,  and 
are  well  stocked  with  bass,  pickerel,  pike,  muskallonge,  and  other  varieties 
of  game  fish. 

Wisconsin  ranks  among  the  first  of  the  agricultural  states  of  the  Union, 
notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  greater  portion  of  the  northerly  half  of  its 
area  is  covered  with  forests  of  pine,  fir,  hemlock,  etc.,  and  is  as  yet  but  sparsely 
settled.  This  forest  region  abounds  with  deer,  bear,  and  other  large  game. 
Lumbering,  the  production  of  iron  ores,  and  manufactures  are  numbered 
among  its  principal  industries. 

The  chief  agricultural  productions  are  wheat,  oats,  corn,  barley,  rye,  flax, 
potatoes  and  tobacco.  The  soil  throughout  the  State  is  of  good  quality,  and 
the  climate  bracing  and  healthful.  The  mean  annual  temperature  is  about  46° 
Fahrenheit. 

ASHLAND,  the  eastern  terminus  of  the  Wisconsin  Division  of  the  Northern 
Pacific  Railroad,  is  an  important  and  rapidly  growing  town  of  some  13,000 
population,  situated  at  the  head  of  charming  Chequamegon  Bay — one  of  the 
Great  Lakes'  fine  harbors — sheltered  from  wind  and  wave  by  the  Apostle 
Islands,  of  historic  memory,  visible  in  the  offing. 

Widespread  as  is  the  fame  of  Ashland,  and  its  large  and  excellent  Chequa- 
megon House,  as  a  summer  resort,  the  rejuvenating  properties  of  its  fragrant 
piny  woods,  its  trouting  and  boating,  its  merited  commercial  repute  has  been 
gained  chiefly  in  connection  with  shipments  of  iron  ore,  for  which  it  boasts  a 

(18) 


A   RAMBLE   IN   WONDERLAND.  19 

record  second  to  but  one  city  in  America.  It  has  a  blast  furnace,  a  smelter  for 
gold  and  silver  bearing  ores,  ten  saw-mills,  large  ore,  lumber  and  coal  docks, 
street  railways,  steel-works,  and  is  the  northern  terminus  of  the  Wisconsin 
Central  Railroad. 

The  Northern  Pacific  has  recently  so  far  absorbed  the  Wisconsin  Central  as 
practically  to  give  it  a  continuous  "through  line"  from  Tacoma,  Seattle,  Port- 
land, and  other  Pacific  Coast  points  to  Chicago. 

Some  twenty-five  miles  west  from  Ashland,  on  the  Wisconsin  Division  of 
the  Northern  Pacific,  there  is  a  pretty  little  lake  and  woodland  pleasure-resort, 
called  Pike  Lake,  the  waters  of  which  afford  prime  fishing,  and  the  circumja- 
cent woodlands  fine  shooting  in  the  way  of  pheasants,  and  deer  and  larger 
game  in  season. 

Eleven  miles  still  farther  west  is  Brule  (Bra'-lgy)  Station,  on  the  clear  and 
impetuous  Bois  Brul6  River — one  of  those  excellent  and  romantic  trout- 
streams  for  which  the  Lake  Superior  region  is  so  justly  celebrated.  Game  is 
also  abundant  in  the  almost  unbroken  forests  surrounding  Brule,  a  fact  which 
gives  increased  interest  to  an  otherwise  commonplace  "  way  "  station.  Hunt- 
ing and  fishing  parties  will  here  find  not  only  exciting  sport,  but  fair  hotel 
accommodations,  and  at  reasonable  rates. 

SUPERIOR,  population  3,000;  WEST  SUPERIOR  (situated  just  west  of  the  old 
town  of  Superior,  on  St.  Louis  Bay),  population  15,000,  and  SOUTH  SUPERIOR 
(distant  about  four  miles  from  the  centers  of  business  of  each  of  the  other  two 
cities  of  the  same  name)  are  the  extreme  northwestern  towns  of  the  "  Badger  " 
State;  and,  together  with  Duluth,  just  across  the  state-line,  in  Minnesota,  of 
which  more  particular  mention  will  be  made  a  little  later  on,  stand  as  lusty 
examples  of  the  remarkable  commercial  development,  at  the  head  of  Lake 
Superior,  which  recent  years  have  witnessed,  and  to  the  sure  and  certain 
continuation  of  which  the  finger  of  destiny  apparently  never  pointed  more 
clearly  or  directly  than  now. 

That  at  least  one  giant  commercial  city  will,  in  the  fullness  of  time,  possibly 
in  the  near  future,  crown  the  abrupt  and  rocky  shores  that  mark  the  western 
limit  of  the  greatest  and  grandest  of  North  America's  unsalted  seas,  even  the 
ubiquitous  "Doubting  Thomas"  can  to-day  discover  slim  foundation  for 
question. 

The  three  Superiors  are  so  closely  linked  with  Duluth  by  hourly  "short- 
line  "  trains,  steam-ferries,  and  abutting  property  limits,  that  it  is  difficult  for  a 
stranger  to  determine,  with  anything  like  certainty,  when  he  has  passed  beyond 
the  municipal  boundary  of  one  and  trespassed  upon  the  confines  of  either  of  the 
others — when  he  is  amenable  to  the  statutes  and  ordinances  of  Wisconsin,  and 
when  of  her  sister  State. 

One  of  the  most  important  of  West  Superior's  recent  acquisitions  is  the 
ship-yard  and  plant  of  the  McDougall  Steel  Barge  Company,  a  large  corpora- 


20  A    RAMBLE   IN    WONDERLAND. 

tion  engaged  in  building  the  already  noted  all-steel  "whale-back"  steamers 
and  barges,  originally  designed  for  use  in  the  enormous  grain  and  ore  carrying 
trade  of  the  lakes;  but  destined,  if  recent  trial  voyages  may  be  accepted  as 
demonstrating  their  superior  seaworthiness,  to  revolutionize  ocean  commerce 
as  well. 

MINNESOTA. 

Lying  nearly  at  the  geographical  center  of  North  America,  as  it  does,  and 
occupying  the  most  elevated  plateau  between  the  Mexican  Gulf  and  Hudson 
Bay,  Minnesota  forms  the  water-shed  of  three  great  continental  river  systems, 
those  of  the  Mississippi,  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  the  Red  River  of  the  North. 
A  group  of  low  hills  in  the  northeastern  portion  of  the  State,  called  Hauteurs 
des  Terres  (Heights  of  Land),  forms  the  dividing  ridge  between  the  waters  of 
streams  tributary  to  the  Mississippi  system  and  those  which  flow  into  Lake 
Superior,  and  ultimately  into  the  Atlantic  by  way  of  the  River  St.  Lawrence. 
A  prominent  spur  extends  south  from  the  Itasca  crest  of  the  Mississippi  for  a 
distance  of  perhaps  150  miles,  known  as  the  Leaf  Mountains,  and  the  Coteau 
du  Grand  Bois  of  Nicollet,  and  forms  a  low  dividing  ridge  between  the  waters 
of  the  Mississippi  and  those  of  the  Red  River. 

Speaking  generally,  the  surface  of  Minnesota  is  a  gently  undulating  plain, 
with  an  average  elevation  of  about  1,000  feet  above  sea-level.  Considered 
with  more  reference  to  topographical  detail,  it  presents  the  appearance  of  a 
succession  of  small,  rolling  prairies,  dotted  and  gemmed  with  shady  groves  and 
sparkling  lakes,  and  alternating  with  belts  of  heavy  forest  growth. 

Its  southern  and  central  portions  consist,  chiefly,  of  rolling  prairies,  the 
northerly  margin  of  which  is  traversed  by  a  belt  of  hard-wood  forest — known 
as  the  Big  Woods — containing  from  4,000  to  5,000  square  miles.  Then  come 
more  stretches  of  prairie,  and  lakes  become  more  numerous.  Northward  from 
the  forty-seventh  parallel  of  latitude,  the  great  pine  region  stretches  away  from 
Lake  Superior  waters  on  the  east  to  the  confines  of  the  grass-carpeted  Valley 
of  the  Red  River  on  the  west,  embracing  the  headwaters  of  the  Mississippi 
and  its  numerous  tributary  streams — an  estimated  area  of  upward  of  20,000 
square  miles. 

LAKES  AND  LAKE  RESORTS. — Minnesota  is  famed  for  the  number  and 
beauty  of  its  lakes,  of  which  there  are  within  its  boundaries  anywhere  from 
7,000  to  10,000,  according  to  varying  estimates  given  by  recognized  authorities 
upon  the  subject.  They  range  from  one  mile  to  thirty  miles  in  diameter,  and 
several  have  an  area  of  from  100  to  400  square  miles.  The  greater  number 
are  exceedingly  picturesque  in  their  surroundings  Primeval  forests  skirt  their 
shores,  which  are,  except  here  and  there  in  isolated  cases,  strewn  with  pebbles, 
among  which  numerous  and  oftentimes  remarkably  pretty  cornelians  are  found. 


A    RAMBLE   IN    WONDERLAND.  21 

The  waters  of  all  are  clear,  cool  and  healthful,  and,  as  a  rule,  abound  in  vari- 
ous kinds  of  food  and  game  fish.  A  number  of  Minnesota's  lakes  have 
gained  a  merited  and  world-wide  reputation  as  delightful  summer  resorts  and 
places  of  health-renewing  recreation.  Lakes  Minnetonka  and  White  Bear, 
situated  within  a  few  miles  of  the  cities  of  Minneapolis  and  St.  Paul,  are 
especially  popular  resorts  of  this  kind. 

FAUNA  AND  FLORA.  —  Minnesota's  fauna  and  flora  present  no  marked 
differences  from  those  of  other  States  in  the  same  latitude.  Among  its  game 
and  fur-bearing  animals  are  the  elk,  deer,  moose,  caribou,  bear,  otter,  mink, 
muskrat,  marten,  raccoon  and  wolf;  while  among  the  native  game  birds 
pinnated  grouse  (prairie  chickens)  and  ruffed  grouse  (partridges,  sometimes 
locally  termed  pheasants)  are  numerous,  and  afford  excellent  and  unlimited 
sport  in  season. 

SCENERY. — Although  Minnesota  is  destitute  of  scenery  that  may  be  strictly 
classed  as  grand,  not  a  little  of  its  landscape  is  characterized  by  a  certain 
picturesque  beauty  and  an  exquisitely  rich  coloring,  particularly  in  the  full  leaf 
and  bloom  of  summer  or  in  the  golden  autumn  time,  such  as  few  prairie  states 
may  boast.  Notable,  in  this  respect,  are  the  high,  rounded  bluffs  that  flank 
either  margin  of  the  Mississippi,  from  the  Falls  of  Minnehaha  southward. 

MINERALS.  —  Copper  and  iron  ores  abound  in  the  northeastern  part  of  the 
State,  along  the  north  shore  of  Lake  Superior  and  in  the  vicinity  of  Ver- 
million  Lake. 

BUILDING-STONES. — Extensive  strata  of  building-stones,  of  excellent  quality 
and  of  varying  kinds,  underlie  parts  of  Minnesota  in  such  close  proximity  to 
the  surface  as  to  render  quarrying  both  practical  and  easy.  Noteworthy  among 
these  are  the  Trenton  limestone  of  St.  Paul  and  vicinity,  the  gray  granite 
quarried  at  St.  Cloud,  and  two  particularly  handsome  strata  of  lower  mag- 
nesian  limestone  —  the  pink-tinted  stone  found  and  quarried  near  Mankato, 
and  universally  known  as  Kasota  stone,  and  a  cream-colored  variety  found  at 
Red  Wing. 

SOIL  AND  PRODUCTIONS. — The  character  of  the  surface  soil  varies  in  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  State  with  the  character  of  the  underlying  strata.  It  is,  as  a 
general  thing,  very  fertile,  and  wears  remarkably  well,  some  fields  having  been 
cultivated  to  crops  for  thirty  or  more  consecutive  seasons.  About  three- 
fourths  its  entire  area  is  susceptible  of  cultivation,  much  of  which,  especially 
in  the  northerly  and  northwesterly  portions,  is  as  yet  unsettled — awaiting  only 
the  coming  of  the  tiller  of  the  soil  to  make  it  crop-producing.  There  are  at 
least  15,000,000  acres  of  good  farming-land  in  Minnesota  yet  unoccupied. 

The  principal  agricultural  productions  are  wheat,  oats,  corn,  rye,  flax, 
barley,  buckwheat,  sorghum,  potatoes  and  hay.  The  hardy  varieties  of  fruits 
and  berries  yield  well,  and  are  profitably  raised.  Grapes  and  tobacco  are  also 
raised  to  some  extent.  Hundreds  of  bushels  of  wild  plums,  gooseberries, 


22  A    RAMBLE   IN    WONDERLAND. 

raspberries,  and  blueberries  are  annually  gathered,  and  readily  find  an  active 
home  market. 

Dairying  and  poultry-raising  are  quite  general,  and  where  attended  with 
care,  pay  well. 

Sheep,  cattle,  and  horses  are  also  reared  to  a  consideraMe  extent,  and,  as  a 
general  thing,  with  success  and  profit. 

THE  LEADING  INDUSTRIES  are  agriculture,  lumbering,  mining,  and  manu- 
factures. Minnesota's  repute  as  a  manufacturing  state  had  its  inception  in, 
and  for  years  was  maintained  by,  the  grinding  of  wheat  into  flour;  but,  of  late 
years,  other  manufacturing  enterprises  have  sprung  from  the  soil,  or  been 
attracted  to  her  borders,  to  such  an  extent  that  the  Eleventh  Census  assigns  her 
noteworthy  rank  in  this  respect. 

EDUCATION. —  Minnesota's  educational  facilities  are  unsurpassed;  and  re- 
gard for  "  The  Little  Red  School-house  "  is  as  firmly  rooted  in  the  hearts  of 
her  people,  of  all  classes,  as  love  of  free  homes  and  firesides  and  the  dear  old 
emblem  of  liberty  itself. 

CLIMATE. —  Minnesota  lies  so  far  north  as  to  have  a  low  mean  annual  tem- 
perature, and  so  far  inland  as  to  have  the  characteristic  continental  climate. 
Its  elevation  above  sea-level  gives  an  agreeable  rarefaction  to  the  atmosphere, 
and  makes  the  prevalence  of  fogs  and  damp  weather  unknown.  Between 
June  and  January  there  is  an  annual  variation  from  the  summer  heat  of 
Southern  Ohio  to  the  winter  cold  of  Montreal.  The  winter,  usually  com- 
mencing in  November  and  continuing  till  near  the  end  of  March,  is  not  a 
period  of  intense  continued  cold,  but  is  subject  to  considerable  variations.  As 
a  rule,  the  comparative  dryness  of  the  atmosphere  neutralizes  the  severest 
effect  of  excessive  cold.  The  snowfall  is  extremely  light  during  most  of  the 
winter,  but  as  spring  approaches  precipitation  becomes  greater,  and  there  are, 
frequently,  heavy  snowfalls  in  February  and  March.  The  change  from  winter 
to  summer  is  rapid,  vegetation  sometimes  seeming  to  leap  into  full  and  active 
growth  within  the  space  of  a  few  weeks.  The  summer  months  bring  days  of 
intense  heat,  but,  with  comparatively  rare  exceptions,  the  nights  are  delight- 
fully cool.  Hot  days  and  cool  nights  make  the  ideal  weather  for  a  good  wheat 
crop;  and  the  forcing  heats  of  summer  produce  in  luxuriant  growth  the  vege- 
table life  which  belongs  to  the  Middle  States.  The  average  temperature  for 
the  hottest  week  in  summer  is  from  85°  to  90°,  and  for  the  coldest  week  in 
winter  is  from  10°  to  20°  below  zero.  Observations  conducted  at  St.  Paul, 
extending  over  a  period  of  more  than  thirty-five  years,  show  the  following  mean 
temperatures:  Spring,  45.6°;  summer,  70.6°;  autumn,  40.9°;  winter,  16.1°; 
average,  44.6°.  The  average  annual  rainfall  is  about  25.5  inches.  While 
this  is  not  large,  it  is  so  distributed  as  best  to  subserve  the  purposes  of  vege- 
table growth.  No  moisture  is  lost  in  superfluous  spring  and  autumn  rains,  or 
in  the  cold  or  non-producing  part  of  the  year;  the  precipitation,  which  in 


OLD   FAITHFUL." 


A    RAMBLE    IN    WONDERLAND.  25 

winter  is  less  than  two  inches,  increasing  in  summer  to  twelve  inches.  To  the 
season  of  vegetable  growth  belong  70  per  cent,  of  the  yearly  measures  of  heat 
and  76  per  cent,  of  the  rainfall. 

The  causes  which  mitigate  the  actual  severity  of  the  climate  as  felt,  which 
produce  so  large  a  number  of  clear,  crisp  days,  and  which  forbid  the  continued 
presence  of  a  large  amount  of  moisture  in  the  atmosphere,  are  those  which 
render  a  climate  healthful  in  the  highest  degree. 

DULUTH,  population  about  40,000,  situated  at  the  head  of  Lake  Superior, 
is  the  county  seat  of  St.  Louis  County,  and  the  eastern  terminus  of  the  East 
Minnesota  Division  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad.  Six  other  lines  of  rail- 
way enter  the  city,  making  it  an  important  railway  center.  It  has  twelve  banks, 
with  a  combined  capital  of  over  $2,000,000;  sixteen  large  grain  elevators,  with 
a  combined  capacity  of  about  21,000,000  bushels;  a  very  extensive  and  com- 
plete system  of  docks,  a  blast-furnace,  car  works,  foundries,  and  machine  shops, 
saw-mills,  flouring-mills,  two  morning,  two  evening,  and  twelve  weekly  news- 
papers, two  handsome  opera-houses,  a  union  railway  depot  erected  in  1891,  at 
a  cost  of  $325,000,  and  a  complete  system  of  water  and  gas  mains  and  electric 
street  railways.  Every  branch  of  commercial  industry  is  here  represented; 
and  receipts  and  shipments  of  grain,  coal,  lumber,  oil,  salt,  ores,  and  fish  are 
simply  enormous.  The  combined  capacity  of  grain  elevators  alone,  in  Duluth 
and  West  Superior,  is  sufficient  to  provide  winter  storage  for  30,000,000  bushels 
of  grain. 

Fine  trout-fishing  and  hunting  are  to  be  had  within  easy  reach  of 
the  city. 

BRAINERD,  the  county  seat  of  Crow  Wing  County,  and  a  growing  city  of 
7,000  population,  is  located  upon  the  east  bank  of  the  Upper  Mississippi,  in 
the  midst  of  a  forest  of  pine.  It  is  the  junction  point  of  the  Northern  Pacific 
Line  running  to  St.  Paul  by  way  of  Little  Falls  and  the  line  running  to  Duluth 
direct,  from  which  latter  city  it  is  distant  no  miles.  The  road  from  Duluth  to 
Brainerd  passes,  for  the  greater  part  of  the  way,  through  forests  of  pine  and 
hardwood  timber,  interspersed  with  stretches  of  prairie  and  strips  of  meadow, 
with  here  and  there  a  sylvan  lake  or  stream  to  tempt  the  angler.  This  entire 
region  affords  good  hunting  and  fishing. 

DEERWOOD,  seventeen  miles  east  of  Brainerd,  is  regarded  by  sportsmen  as 
a  particularly  favorite  locality.  It  is  immediately  surrounded  by  small,  crystal 
lakes  well  stocked  with  bass,  pike,  pickerel,  etc.,  that  afford  wieldersof  the  rod 
excellent  sport;  and  ducks,  ruffed  grouse,  and  deer  are  to  be  had  in  season. 
Visitors  are  assured  good  hotel  accommodations  and  boating,  no  pains  being 
spared  to  make  their  stay  pleasant  in  all  respects.  A  number  of  city-dwellers, 
who  enjoy  the  quiet  and  rural  comforts  of  a  lake  and  woodland  retreat,  boast- 
ing less  of  fashion  than  of  the  fresh  beauty  of  nature,  have  erected  pretty 
cottages  for  summer  occupancy  at  Deerwood. 


26  A    RAMBLE    IN    WONDERLAND. 

AITKIN  (ten  miles  farther  east)  is  also  a  Mississippi  River  town,  and  the 
natural  center  of  quite  an  extensive  farming  and  lumbering  region.  Steamboats 
make  regular  trips  in  summer  from  this  point  to  Grand  Rapids,  sixty-five 
miles  north. 

The  distance  from  Brainerd  to  St.  Paul  by  rail  is  138  miles;  the  entire 
route  lying  through  a  pleasant  and  well-settled  agricultural  section,  with  here 
and  there  manufacturing  centers  of  not  a  little  importance — the  outgrowth  of 
vast  lumbering  and  wheat-milling  interests. 

ST.  PAUL  is  one  of  the  handsomest  and  most  substantially  built  cities  on 
the  American  Continent.  It  is,  in  very  truth,  founded  upon  a  rock,  as  the  un- 
derlying strata  of  limestone  amply  attest.  Situated  at  the  head  of  practical 
navigation  on  the  Mississippi,  this  beautiful  and  healthful  city  covers  an  area 
of  35*482  acres,  lying  in  the  fornj,  in  rough  outline,  of  a  semicircular  amphi- 
theatre, or  succession  of  steep,  rolling  terraces,  breaking  here  and  there  into 
bold,  rocky  bluffs  of  sufficient  height  to  afford  a  commanding  and  compre- 
hensive view,  not  only  of  the  city  itself,  but  of  the  broad  river  at  its  feet,  the 
picturesque  bluffs  which  stretch  away  to  the  southeast,  and  those  which  are 
crowned  by  the  frowning  battlements  of  historic  old  Fort  Snelling,  five  miles 
farther  up  the  majestic  river. 

The  business  portion  of  the  city  is  confined  principally  to  the  lower  terraces 
near,  or  at  all  events  not  very  remote  from,  the  river  front;  while  the  higher 
"benches",  that  rise  above  this  older  part  of  the  town,  are  the  favorite  residence 
districts.  Famed  as  is  this  city  of  the  great  and  growing  Northwest  for  its  busi- 
ness enterprise,  its  wealth,  its  public  schools,  libraries,  charitable  institutions, 
its  parks  and  public  works,  and  the  universal  large-heartedness  of  its  citizens; 
its  crowning  glory  is  the  general  air  of  taste,  refinement,  and  comfort  which 
pervades  its  homes; 'not  the  stately  dwellings  that  rise  in  the  most  select  dis- 
tricts merely,  but  the  homes  of  men  of  modest  income  as  well. 

But  it  is  not  the  purpose  of  the  writer  to  pay  more  than  a  passing  tribute  to 
cities  such  as  St.  Paul  and  Minneapolis,  concerning  whose  prosperity  and  com- 
mercial importance  no  portion  of  the  civilized  world  requires  enlightenment. 
Suffice  it  to  be  said  that  both  the  cities  named  are  metropolitan  in  all  that  that 
term  implies.  Each  has  a  population  of  not  far  from  200,000;  and  in  many 
respects  their  interests  are  identical.  St.  Paul  is  practically  the  eastern  terminus 
of  the  Northern  Pacific,  though  its  trains  run  through  to  and  from  Chicago 
direct  and  without  change  over  the  Wisconsin  Central  Line,  as  already  stated. 

MINNEAPOLIS. —  To  dismiss  this  city  with  the  meager  statements  just  made 
regarding  its  population  and  commercial  importance,  would  be  but  an  act  of 
gross  injustice  to  the  reader,  more  so  than  to  the  city  whose  marvelous  mills 
have  borne  the  name  of  Minnesota  into  more  households,  both  at  home  and 
abroad,  than  any  other  one  agency  in  the  State.  Pretty  much  everything  that 
has  been  said  regarding  St.  Paul  may  be,  with  equal  accuracy,  applied  to  Min- 


A    RAMBLE    IN    WONDERLAND.  2? 

neapolis,  though  the  location  of  the  latter  is  more  levei,  and  its  streets  and 
avenues  laid  out  with  greater  regularity  in  consequence. 

Here  are  the  largest  flouring-mills  in  the  world,  the  Pillsbury  "A"  and  the 
Washburn  "A"  mills,  their  combined  daily  capacity  being  11,350  barrels.  The 
daily  capacity  of  the  city's  twenty-four  flouring-mills  is  37,850  barrels,  and  the 
total  number  of  barrels  of  flour  manufactured  by  these  mills  during  the  year 
just  closed  was  between  6,000,000,  and  7,000,000.  The  grain  storage  capacity 
of  Minneapolis  is  about  20,000,000  bushels. 

Ranking  next  in  importance  to  flour  is  the  lumber  manufacture  of  this  great 
city;  about  300,000,000  feet  being  the  annual  cut.  The  logs  that  are  thus 
converted  into  lumber,  sash,  doors,  blinds,  etc.,  are  floated  down  the  Mississippi 
and  its  tributaries  from  the  northern  pineries.  The  immense  water-power  that 
is  utilized  by  the  ingenuity  of  man  to  accomplish  these  astounding  results  rep- 
resents about  50,000  horse-power. 

The  cities  of  Minneapolis  and  St.  Paul  together  form  the  marvel  of  the  North- 
west. They  lie  but  ten  miles  apart,  and,  so  far  as  distance  is  concerned,  are 
to  all  intents  and  purposes  one  city  —  the  means  of  transportation  between  them 
being  as  available  as  are  the  street  railways  of  either  city.  Each  is  justly  proud 
of  its  public  schools,  and  the  thousand  or  more  students,  male  and  female  who 
annually  receive  instruction  —  tuition  free — at  the  University  of  Minnesota 
have  just  reason  to  be  proud  of  the  State  of  their  nativity.  Hamline  Univer- 
sity is  another  of  the  higher  institutions  of  learning  with  which  the  State  is 
blessed. 

Fort  Snelling  and  the  near-by  Falls  of  Minnehaha — both  points  of  historic 
interest  and  not  a  little  beauty — attract  many  visitors.  The  time  was  when 
Fort  Snelling  was  recognized  as  one  of  the  most  important  of  Western  military 
posts;  but  it  is  many  years  since  its  strong  granite  walls  and  deep-mouthed 
cannon  have  been  considered  as  necessary  factors  in  the  maintenance  of  the 
tranquillity  and  dignity  of  the  great  commonwealth.  Of  late  years,  it  has  been 
the  recruiting  station  and  army  headquarters  of  the  Department  of  the 
Northwest. 

ANOKA,  population  5,000,  ST.  CLOUD,  population  10,000,  and  LITTLE 
FALLS,  population  3,000,  distant  from  St.  Paul  29,  76,  and  108  miles,  respect- 
ively, are  manufacturing  towns  of  some  importance  on  the  line  of  the  Northern 
Pacific.  All  three  are  located  on  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi,  and  enjoy  more 
or  less  extensive  water-power  privileges.  They  are  surrounded  by  a  fine 
agricultural  region,  and  are  largely  engaged  in  the  milling  of  wheat  and  lumber. 
Besides  other  interests,  St.  Cloud  has  twenty-three  granite  quarries  whose 
product  ranks  high  among  builders,  and  commands  a  ready  market.  Little  Falls 
is  the  junction  of  the  branch  line  running  to  Morris,  Minn.,  eighty-eight  miles, 
and  of  the  "  cut-off"  running  to  STAPLES,  on  the  main  line,  thirty  miles  west  of 
Brainerd.  Both  of  these  branches  traverse  districts  rich  in  timber  and  agricult- 


28  A    RAMBLE    IN    WONDERLAND. 

ure,  the  principal  products  being  wheat  and  other  small  grains,  lumber,  rail- 
road ties,  and  cord- wood. 

WADENA,  the  county  seat  of  Wadena  County,  population  about  1,500,  is 
another  of  the  milling  and  agricultural  towns  on  the  main  line.  It  is  seventeen 
miles  west  of  Staples,  and  forms  the  junction  point  of  the  main  line  with  the 
Northern  Pacific,  Fergus  Falls  and  Black  Hills  Branch,  running  southwesterly 
—  1 19  miles  —  to  Milnor,  N.  Dak.  This  branch  also  runs  through  a  rich 
farming  country. 

PERHAM  and  DETROIT,  stations  on  the  main  line  west  of  Wadena,  the 
former  in  Otter  Tail  County  and  the  latter  the  county  seat  of  Becker  County, 
are  quite  important  towns,  not  only  in  a  commercial  sense,  but  as  popular  local 
resorts  for  sportsmen  and  those  seeking  recreation  generally.  They  are 
situated  in  the  midst  of  a  section  so  famous  for  the  number  and  beauty  of  its 
lakes  as  to  have  long  ago  received  the  distinct  appellation  of  "  The  Lake  Park 
Region  of  Minnesota."  Hundreds  of  lakes,  some  of  fair  size,  others  small,  dot 
the  landscape  for  many  miles  around,  here  shimmering  in  the  sunlight  of  the 
open  prairie,  there  reflecting  the  dark  shadows  of  pine,  spruce  and  hemlock; 
one  and  all  plentifully  stocked  with  gamy  bass,  pike,  pickerel  and  muskallonge. 
Myriads  of  migratory  wild  ducks  and  geese  halt  among  these  lakes  in  their 
spring  and  autumn  flights,  affording  excellent  "pass"  shooting;  while  the 
prairie  chicken  shooting  of  September  and  October,  and  the  partridge  and  deer 
hunting  of  November  and  December,  add  to  the  pleasures  of  the  sportsman. 

Lake  Detroit,  one  of  the  lakes  under  discussion  —  and  in  the  immediate 
vicinity  of  which  the  station  (Detroit)  is  located  —  is  quite  a  large  body  of 
water,  having  a  shore-line  of  thirty-seven  miles,  most  of  which  is  densely 
wooded.  Excursion  steamers  and  sail  and  row-boats  navigate  its  placid 
waters,  and  summering  cottages  grace  its  clean,  sandy  shores.  The  Hotel 
Minnesota,  a  fine,  large  hotel  near  the  lake-shore,  is  well  adapted  to  meet 
the  requirements  of  tourist-travel. 

At  WINNIPEG  JUNCTION,  twenty-one  miles  farther  west,  the  Manitoba 
Division  of  the  Northern  Pacific  diverges  from  the  main  line.  This  division 
extends  257  miles  to  the  north,  through  an  agricultural  region  of  great  fertility, 
to  Winnipeg,  in  the  Province  of  Manitoba.  Crookston  and  Red  Lake  Falls,  in 
Minnesota;  Grand  Forks,  Grafton,  Drayton,  and  Pembina,  in  North  Dakota, 
and  Morris,  Brandon,  Portage  la  Prairie,  and  Winnipeg  are  the  important 
towns  on  this  line. 

MOORHEAD,  opposite  Fargo,  at  the  Red  River  "  Crossing,"  is  the  last  station 
on  the  main  line  in  Minnesota.  It  is  the  county  seat  of  Clay  County;  is  located 
in  an  excellent  farming  district,  and,  in  common  with  Fargo,  is  the  head  of 
practical  navigation  on  the  Red  River,  which  forms  the  boundary-line  between 
Minnesota  and  North  Dakota.  Moorhead  has  a  population  of  some  4,000,  and 
possesses  exceptionally  fine  educational  advantages.  Besides  its  excellent 


A   RAMBLE  IN   WONDERLAND.  29 

public  schools,  it  has  a  State  normal  school,  an  Episcopal  college  and  training- 
school  for  boys,  and  a  Swedish  academy. 

NORTH  DAKOTA 

Is  one  of  the  most  interesting  of  the  prairie  states,  whether  considered  from 
a  geological  or  agricultural  point  of  view.  It  is  a  great,  grassy,  rolling  plain, 
destitute  of  timber,  save  along  the  margin  of  lakes  and  streams  —  with  both  of 
which  it  is  well  supplied  —  and  with  general  outline  broken  but  slightly  by  hills. 
True,  the  extreme  northern  boundary,  from  the  western  verge  of  the  Valley 
of  the  Red  River  to  that  of  the  Souris  or  Mouse  River,  is  formed  of  fairly  high 
rolling  hills,  known  as  the  Pembina  and  Turtle  Mountains  —  the  latter  quite 
heavily  timbered.  Then,  too,  there  are  elevated  ridges  and  small  plateaus 
surrounding  the  east  and  south  shores  of  Devil's  Lake,  and  a  long  stretch  of 
high  rolling  land  extending  from  the  extreme  northwestern  corner  of  the  State, 
in  a  southeasterly  direction  —  following,  in  general  trend,  the  course  of  the 
Missouri  —  to  and  across  its  southern  boundary.  This  elevated  plateau  is  des- 
ignated by  geographers  as  the  Coteau  du  Missouri  (  Highland  of  the  Missouri ), 
but  is  usually  referred  to  by  Dakotans  —  North  and  South  —  as  "The 
Coteaus." 

That  portion  of  the  State  lying  west  of  the  Missouri  is  much  more  rolling 
and  "  broken  "  than  the  section  to  the  east  of  the  river,  and  terminates — in 
the  extreme  western  part — in  a  group  of  fantastically  formed  and,  in  some 
cases,  highly  colored  clayey  hills,  to  which  early  French  trappers  gave  the 
characteristic  appellation  Mauvaises  Terres  (Bad  Lands),  a  misnomer  that  has 
since  clung  to  the  region. 

The  average  elevation  of  the  State  is  but  little,  if  any,  greater  than  that  of 
Minnesota,  and  the  statements  already  made  in  these  pages  regarding  the 
climate  of  the  latter  apply  equally  well  to  North  Dakota. 

One  unacquainted  with  the  West  would  naturally  enough,  perhaps,  be  led  to 
suppose  that  the  absence  of  trees  would  result  in  making  these  plains  a  sterile 
desert  waste;  but,  on  the  contrary,  no  part  of  the  known  world  possesses  a  soil 
of  such  phenomenal  fertility — not  even  the  Valley  of  the  Nile.  Like  the 
wide-rolling  "pampas"  of  South  America,  the  prairies  of  this  new  North  State, 
carpeted  with  the  richest  and  most  nutritious  of  native  grasses,  were  only  a 
few  brief  years  since  the  home  and  grazing-ground  of  roving  bison  countless  in 
number  as  the  yellow  daisies  that  nodded  in  the  breeze.  To-day,  these  same 
prairies  constitute  one  vast  wheat,  cattle  and  sheep  ranch;  and  when  its  tens  of 
thousands  of  quarter-sections  of  arable  land — yet  untenanted — are  settled, 
and  all  its  bountiful  acres  brought  under  the  plow,  or  pastured  to  flocks  and 
herds,  the  world  will  gaze  in  wonder  and  admiration  upon  the  grandest 
agricultural  commonwealth  in  its  history. 


30  A    RAMBLE   IN    WONDERLAND. 

SOIL  AND  PRODUCTIONS. — The  surface  soil  all  over  the  State  is  composed 
of  from  two  to  four  feet  of  black  loam — in  localities  slightly  mixed  with  a 
very  fine  sand.  Below  this  is  a  heavy  clay  marl  of  great  depth.  There  are 
very  few  underlying  strata  of  rock;  in  fact,  there  are  almost  no  rocks  at  all  in 
the  State,  either  on  or  under  the  surface,  except  an  occasional  deposit  of 
smooth  bowlders  of  granite  or  limestone  formation  brought  here  and  stranded 
during  the  glacial  period.  It  is  very  evident  that  the  soil  is  the  result  of  the  wash- 
ing down  and  depositing  of  the  loose,  earthy  matter  and  vegetation  of  higher 
altitudes,  as  trunks  of  trees  and  the  plant-life  of  past  ages  are  encountered  by 
well-diggers  at  depths  ranging  from  ten  to  ninety  feet.  It  would  seem,  also, 
that  the  State,  or  portions  of  it,  at  all  events,  must  have  at  some  time  in  the 
past  been  an  ocean-bed,  as  the  soil  is  strongly  impregnated  with  the  sulphates 
of  soda,  lime,  and  magnesia,  carbonate  of  lime,  and  common  salt.  These 
properties  give  the  soil-waters  a  brackish,  alkaline  taste;  and,  in  the  case  of 
Devil's  Lake — an  irregular  sheet  of  water  forty  miles  in  length  by  three  to  ten 
miles  in  width — and  a  smaller  body  of  water  near  by,  called  Stump  Lake, 
have  so  far  impregnated  their  waters  as  to  render  them  unfit  for  drinking. 

That  the  soil  will  prove  inexhaustible  is  easily  shown  by  the  fact  that  when 
the  surface  soil  becomes  worn  and  unproductive,  if  it  ever  does,  subsoil-plow- 
ing will  restore  its  original  vigor  by  bringing  to  the  air  and  mixing  with  the 
depleted  and  impoverished  loam  sufficient  quantities  of  vegetable  salts  to 
refertilize  it. 

Both  the  soil  and  climate  of  North  Dakota  are  peculiarly  adapted  to  the 
production  of  the  finest  quality  of  wheat  ever  known  to  man,  and  which  has 
acquired  world-wide  repute  as  "North  Dakota  No.  i  Hard  Wheat." 

This  wheat  is  conceded  to  be  so  superior  to  all  other  grades,  that  it  regu- 
larly commands  a  u  fancy  "  price  in  the  markets;  and  the  demand  will  doubtless 
always  exceed  the  supply,  owing  to  the  limited  area  adapted  to  its  production. 

COST  OF  GROWING  WHEAT. —  Nowhere  in  the  United  States  can  wheat  be 
grown  so  cheaply  as  upon  the  prairies  of  North  Dakota,  where  there  is  neither 
stump  nor  stone  to  interfere  with  the  labors  of  the  farm,  and  no  side-hills  to 
climb.  Careful  estimates  extending  over  a  period  of  ten  years  place  the  cost 
of  raising  this  cereal  at  not  to  exceed  24  cents  a  bushel  upon  large  farms  sup- 
plied with  modern  machinery,  and  from  that  to  40  cents  upon  smaller  farms. 
This  estimate  not  only  covers  the  labor,  but  cost  of  seed  and  re-plowing  the 
land.  Eighteen  bushels  an  acre  is  an  average  yield  under  fairly  favorable 
conditions;  and,  one  year  with  another,  75  cents  a  bushel,  net,  can  be  realized 
from  this  crop.  Barley,  oats,  rye  and  flax  are  also  profitable  crops;  while 
potatoes,  onions,  and  every  vegetable  common  to  the  Northern  States  yield 
bountiful  crops  at  a  minimum  of  cost  to  the  grower.  Potatoes  may  be  grown 
at  a  net  cost  of  10  cents  a  bushel,  and  find  a  ready  market  at  prices  ranging 
from  30  cents  to  $i  a  bushel.  The  yield  runs  from  100  to  300  bushels  an  acre, 


A    RAMBLE    IN    WONDERLAND.  31 

according  to  the  season  and  the  care  given  the  plants.  In  some  instances  400 
bushels  of  sound,  merchantable  potatoes  have  been  gathered  from  an  acre  of 
ground  devoted  to  their  culture. 

Wild  prairie  hay,  of  better  quality  and  far  more  nutritious  than  timothy,  can 
be  put  in  the  stack  at  $i  a  ton,  and  requires  no  shelter. 

WINTER  AND  SNOWFALL. —  The  ground  freezes  sufficiently  to  stop  fall 
plowing  about  November  10,  and  rarely  thaws  enough  to  admit  of  the  begin- 
ning of  spring  farming  operations  earlier  than  March  20.  During  this  period, 
clear,  sunshiny  days  follow  one  another  almost  continuously,  and  the  dry, 
bracing  air  lends  a  stimulus  to  one's  energies  truly  astonishing.  During  the 
months  of  December,  January  and  February,  the  thermometer  often  marks 
20°  below  zero,  and  once  in  a  great  while  30°  and  even  40°  below.  These 
extremes  of  cold  appear  to  create  an  absolute  calm,  and  so  dry  is  the  atmos- 
phere and  so  little  the  inconvenience  experienced,  that  it  is  difficult  to  realize 
the  extent  of  mercurial  contraction.  This  cold  is  not  of  the  penetrating  sort 
as  a  rule,  and  it  is  often  asserted,  by  persons  competent  to  speak  authorita- 
tively, that  less  actual  discomfort  is  felt  in  North  Dakota  with  the  thermometer 
indicating  25°  below  zero  than  in  the  damp  atmosphere  of  the  Atlantic  sea- 
board with  the  mercury  at  8°  or  10°  below. 

The  snowfall  of  the  entire  prairie  region  is  very  light  north  of  the  forty- 
sixth  parallel,  as  compared  with  that  of  the  region  extending  northward  300 
miles  or  more  from  the  latitude  of  Chicago;  and  travel  by  rail  or  otherwise  is 
seldom  interrupted  in  consequence. 

In  North  Dakota  very  little  snow  falls  prior  to  January  i,  and  cattle, 
horses,  and  sheep  may  be  daily  seen  grazing  in  the  fields.  Young  stock,  espe- 
cially, require  little  or  no  feeding  until  along  in  February,  and  by  the  middle 
of  March  are  again  turned  out  to  shift  for  themselves. 

FENCING. — Farms  are  not  required  to  be  fenced  in  this  State;  a  fact  that 
annually  effects  a  great  saving  to  the  wheat-grower.  A  herd-law  prohibits  the 
running  at  large  of  stock  in  grain-growing  districts,  and  in  localities  where 
sheep  and  stock-raising  has  come  to  be  the  leading  industry,  there  are  no 
wheat-farmers  to  be  bothered  by  stock. 

FUEL  SUPPLY. — Although  to  a  great  extent  destitute  of  timber,  North 
Dakota  is  underlaid,  in  several  sections  of  the  State,  by  immense  beds  of  lig- 
nite coal  of  excellent  quality,  and  in  quantity  sufficient  to  supply  the  needs  of 
a  dense  population.  This  coal  lies  near  the  surface,  and  is  easily  and  cheaply 
mined.  Then,  too,  the  extensive  forests  of  Minnesota,  whence  cord-wood  and 
lumber  are  obtained,  are  at  the  very  threshold  of  North  Dakota,  requiring  but 
small  cost  of  transportation. 

THE  FAMED  RED  RIVER  VALLEY  is  300  miles  in  length  by  about  60  miles 
in  width,  and  is  not  a  deep  valley  surrounded  by  hills,  but  a  slight  depression 
merely  in  a  comparatively  level  prairie  region.  To  the  eye,  it  is  as  flat  and 


32  A   RAMBLE    IN    WONDERLAND. 

smooth  as  a  ball-room  floor,  but  it  has,  in  fact,  a  sufficient  slope  to  effect 
natural  drainage.  The  valleys  of  the  Sheyenne,  James,  and  Missouri  rivers 
are  quite  deep  bottom-lands  flanked  by  bold,  picturesque  bluffs. 

FREE  HOMES. — North  Dakota  is  one  of  the  few  remaining  States  of  the 
Union  in  which  there  is  anything  like  a  considerable  area  of  public  land  yet 
subject  to  settlement  under  the  homestead  laws  of  the  United  States— practi- 
cally a  free  gift  of  160  acres  to  every  farmer  desiring  a  home  in  the  West  and 
yet  without  the  means  to  purchase  it. 

EDUCATION. — For  so  young  a  State,  North  Dakota  has  made  giant  strides 
in  the  cause  of  popular  education.  Her  common  schools  rank  among  the  best, 
and  she  has  endowed  a  university  at  Grand  Forks,  an  agricultural  college  at 
Fargo,  normal  schools  at  Valley  City  and  Mayville,  an  industrial  school  at 
Ellendale,  and  a  scientific  school  at  Wahpeton. 

The  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  traverses  the  State  from  Fargo  on  the  east- 
ern to  Sentinel  Butte  on  the  western  boundary — about  400  miles — besides 
which  it  operates  500  miles  or  more  of  branch  lines  within  the  State.  The 
main  line  passes  through  the  cities  of  Fargo,  Casselton,  Valley  City,  James- 
town, Bismarck,  (the  capital),  Mandan  and  Dickinson. 

The  Fargo  &  Southwestern  Branch  runs  from  Fargo,  no  miles,  to  Sheldon, 
Lisbon,  La  Moure  and  Edgeley. 

The  Jamestown  &  Northern  Branch  runs  from  Jamestown  north  to  Car- 
rington,  New  Rockford,  Minnewaukan,  and  Leeds — 108  miles.  Another 
branch  runs  from  Jamestown  south  to  Grand  Rapids,  La  Moure,  and  Oakes — 
sixty-nine  miles;  still  another  from  Sanborn,  on  the  main  line,  in  Barnes 
County,  to  Cooperstown,  in  Griggs  County — thirty-six  miles;  while  the  Mani- 
toba Division  and  the  Black  Hills  Branch  enter  the  State  at  Grand  Forks  and 
Wahpeton,  respectively. 

The  huge  steel  bridge  built  by  the  Northern  Pacific  across  the  Missouri 
River  between  Bismarck  and  Mandan,  in  1881,  is,  including  approaches,  about 
3,000  feet  in  length,  and  cost  upward  of  a  million  dollars.  It  is  universally 
regarded  as  a  fine  piece  of  engineering  skill. 

Among  the  high,  rolling  bluffs  on  the  west  side  of  the  river,  south  of  Man- 
dan,  are  to  be  found  the  remains  of  a  prehistoric  race.  Specimens  of  pottery 
of  excellent  handiwork  and  exquisite  decoration  have  been  unearthed,  besides 
many  other  relics  of  much  interest. 

GAME. — Although  the  buffalo  has  disappeared  from  these,  his  accustomed 
haunts,  deer  and  antelope  are  still  to  be  found;  and  prairie  chickens,  ducks, 
geese,  brant,  and  sand-hill  cranes  flock  to  the  lakes  and  wheat-fields  of  North 
Dakota  in  such  unusual  numbers  as  to  astonish  every  sportsman  who  takes  his 
autumnal  outing  on  the  prairies  of  this  northern-border  State,  than  which  no 
state,  east  or  west,  north  or  south,  offers  so  fine  a  field  to  the  wing-shot. 


CHAPTER  III. 

MOUNTAIN  REGIONS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST—FERTILE  VALLEYS— HEALTHFUL 
CLIMATE— SCENIC  GRANDEUR  AND  HIDDEN  MINERAL  WEALTH— THE 
GREAT  BASIN  OF  THE  COLUMBIA— FARMING  AND  STOCK-RAISING— THE 
PACIFIC  SLOPE— ITS  ORCHARDS  AND  HOP-YARDS— FORESTS  AND  HAR- 
BORS— COMMERCE  AND  RESOURCES. 

MONTANA, 

HE  third  of  the  quartet  of  Territories  to  enter  the  Union  in 
1888,  is,  next  after  Texas  and  California,  the  largest  of  the 
states,  being  500  miles  in  average  length  from  east  to  west  by 
275   miles  in  average  width  from  north  to  south.     Expressed 
in  square  miles,  its  area  figures  up  into  the  hundred  thousands 
(145,776),  and  its  acreage  ninety-three  and  a  quarter  millions. 
Topographically,  Montana  may  be  separated  into  two  natural  divisions — 
mountain  and  plain,  western  and  eastern. 

THE  EASTERN  PORTION  consists  of  high,  rolling  plains,  broken  at  intervals 
by  groups  of  low  hills,  and  valleys  of  greater  or  less  depth  that  mark  the  trend 
of  water-courses. 

This  region  embraces  about  three-fifths  of  the  State's  entire  area,  and 
affords  almost  unlimited  pasturage  for  flocks  and  herds.  It  extends  from  the 
eastern  boundary,  where  the  general  altitude  is  about  2,000  feet  above  sea-level, 
in  a  nearly  uniform  rise  westward  for  a  distance  of  300  miles  or  more  to  the 
base  of  the  Rockies,  where  it  reaches  double  that  elevation. 

THE  WESTERN  PORTION  is  mountainous,  the  main  chain  and  divergent 
spurs  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  traversing  it  from  northwest  to  southeast.  One 
of  the  largest  of  these  diverging  spurs  is  the  Bitter  Root  Range,  between 
which  on  the  west  and  the  main  chain  on  the  east  is  a  vast  basin,  occupying 
almost  the  whole  of  the  northwestern  segment  of  the  State,  and  embracing 
nearly  20,000,000  acres  of  cultivable  land.  This  basin  is  well  watered  by  dash- 
ing mountain  streams  of  clear,  cold  water — the  habitat  of  the  mountain  trout 
— and  interspersed  with  numerous  small  valleys  of  great  fertility.  Located  in 
the  eastern-central  portion  of  this  basin  is  Flathead  Lake,  thirty  miles  in  length 
by  from  ten  to  fifteen  miles  in  width,  its  limpid  blue  waters  and  dark  setting  of 


36  A    RAMBLE   IN    WONDERLAND. 

pine-clad  mountains,  here  and  there  lifting  a  snow-capped  peak  above  timber- 
line,  giving  it  a  merited  reputation  as  one  of  the  most  picturesque  of  the  many 
fine  bits  of  scenery  which  lend  so  much  of  the  charming  to  the  entire  State. 

THE  CLIMATE  OF  MONTANA  is  dry,  bracing  and  healthful.  The  ther- 
mometer rarely  rises  above  80°  in  summer  and  as  rarely  falls  to  10°  below 
zero  in  winter.  Much  snow  falls  upon  the  mountains,  though  upon  the  rolling 
plains  to  the  eastward  sufficient  snow  seldom  accumulates  to  prevent  the 
grazing  of  the  numerous  bands  of  horses,  cattle,  and  sheep  to  whose  rearing, 
more  than  to  agriculture,  that  section  is  devoted.  Taken  altogether,  it  would 
be  difficult  indeed  to  find  a  climate  better  adapted  to  pursuits  requiring  a  great 
deal  of  open-air  life,  or  more  pleasing  in  its  effects  upon  persons  whose  sys- 
tems need  that  general  toning  up  which  the  pure,  dry  ozone  of  Montana  sel- 
dom fails  of  bringing  about. 

THE  LEADING  INDUSTRIES  OF  THE  STATE  are,  first,  MINING  ;  second,  STOCK- 
RAISING;  and  third,  AGRICULTURE.  Under  the  head  of  mining  is  included 
the  milling  and  smelting  of  ores,  and  the  term  stock-raising  is  intended  to  in- 
clude the  rearing  of  sheep  and  horses,  as  well  as  beeves. 

Both  placer  and  rock-mining  are  largely  engaged  in,  in  various  parts  of 
Montana,  and  new  "  camps "  spring  into  existence  and  notoriety  with  each 
discovery. 

Fifty  million  dollars  is  not  an  extravagant  estimate  to  place  upon  the  value 
of  the  gold,  silver,  copper,  and  lead  annually  produced  by  the  phenomenal 
mines  of  this  State,  and  the  golden  caverns  of  the  mountains  have  as  yet  been 
scarce  "prospected." 

Brief  mention  of  the  methods  employed  by  the  placer-miner  to  sift  out  the 
coveted  nuggets  of  yellow  gold  from  the  sands  of  river-bars  or  the  dry, 
gravelly  beds  of  ancient  water-courses,  together  with  the  latest  and  most 
approved  methods  of  ore-mining  and  reduction,  and  the  elimination  of  metallic 
gold,  silver,  copper,  and  lead  from  their  mineral  compounds,  will  be  made 
later  on. 

STOCK-RAISING. — Montana  stands  unexcelled  as  a  grazing  region.  The 
rolling  plains  stretching  eastward  from  the  mountainous  portions  of  the  State, 
though  for  the  most  part  destitute  of  forest-growth,  and  having  the  casual 
appearance  of  a  well-nigh  barren  waste,  adapted  to  the  production  of  little  if 
anything  else  than  moldy-colored  sage-bushes  and  spiny  clusters  of  prickly 
pears — a  species  of  dwarf  cactus — as  a  matter  of  fact  are  annually  clothed, 
not  only  in  the  valleys,  but  upon  the"  bench-lands  "  and  "foot-hills,"  and  even 
upon  the  mountain-slopes,  with  a  growth  of  short  but  wonderfully  nutritious 
"bunch-grass,"  whose  succulent  blades  begin  to  grow  in  early  spring,  before 
the  frost  has  fairly  left  the  lightish-brown,  sandy  soil,  rapidly  mature,  cure 
early  in  autumn,  and  stand  as  hay  of  the  finest  quality  for  the  winter  sus- 
tenance of  grazing  herds.  Cattle  fatten  more  quickly  and  keep  in  better 


A    kAMBLE    IN    WONDERLAND.  3? 

Condition  upon  this  grass  than  those  which  are  pastured  upon  the  plains  of 
'Nebraska  or  Colorado,  or  even  in  the  "Blue-grass  Region"  of  Kentucky. 
There  seems  to  be  here,  also,  a  happy  blending  of  pure,  dry  air,  wholesome 
water,  dry  soil,  sunshine  to  bask  in,  and  shade  to  recline  in,  hill-sides  to  climb, 
and  long,  level  stretches  to  race  upon,  necessary  to  the  development  of  speed, 
"  bottom,"  and  perfection  in  the  horse,  and  heavy  fleeces  of  sound,  soft  wool 
and  fat,  juicy  mutton  in  the  sheep,  possible  to  find  in  no  other  climate  and  in 
but  few  other  sections  of  North  America. 

Statistics  place  the  wool-clip  of  Montana  at  8,393,390  pounds  for  the  year 
1890;  the  number  of  sheep  at  1,347,753,  cattle  at  621,730,  and  horses  at 
161,311.  Reports  for  1891  are  not  at  hand,  but  will  probably  show  a  slight 
increase  over  above  figures,  except  in  the  case  of  wool  and  sheep,  which  are 
expected  to  show  an  increase  of  from  30  to  50  per  cent. 

SOIL  AND  PRODUCTIONS. — In  portions  of  Montana,  the  soil  is  deep,  rich,  and 
unusually  productive;  in  other  portions  it  is  both  scanty,  such  as  it  is,  and  poor 
enough  what  there  is  of  it.  East  of  the  mountains,  except  in  a  few  localities, 
irrigation  is  a  necessary  incident  to  production,  without  which  scarce  anything, 
other  than  short  native  grasses,  will  grow  and  mature.  With  irrigation,  almost 
anything  in  the  way  of  grain,  vegetables,  berries,  and  hardy  fruits  may  be 
grown.  Beyond  the  mountains  the  soil  is  better  adapted  by  nature  to  farming 
pursuits,  and  the  climate  more  humid  and  propitious.  The  difference  in 
climatic  condition  is  due  to  westerly  winds — "Chinook  winds,"  as  they  are 
called — wafting  the  warm  Japan  current  eastward  to  the  main  chain  of  the 
mountains,  and  even  beyond,  to  the  North  Dakota  prairies;  though  much  of 
the  warmth  and  humidity  of  these  atmospheric  currents  is  lost  by  contact  with 
the  snow  and  ice  of  mountain  barriers. 

The  valleys  of  the  Kootenai,  Flathead,  Missoula,  Bitter  Root,  Deer  Lodge, 
Lo  Lo,  Jocko,  and  Clark  Fork  bottoms,  in  the  northwestern  basin,  and  the 
Prickly  Pear,  Smith,  Sun,  Gallatin,  Madison,  Jefferson,  and  Upper  Yellowstone, 
in  the  central  portion  of  the  State,  east  of  the  "  divide,"  are  some  of  the  more 
noted  agricultural  districts.  In  the  former,  grains,  vegetables,  and  fruits  may 
be  readily  grown  the  same  as  in  North  Dakota  or  Minnesota,  East  of  the 
mountains  the  annual  fall  of  rain  and  snow  decreases,  and  irrigation  to  a 
greater  or  less  extent  becomes  necessary.  The  basin  beyond  the  mountains  is 
also  pretty  well  timbered,  as  might  naturally  be  expected,  from  the  fact  that 
forest-growth  usually  follows  rainfall. 

MINERAL  SPRINGS  AND  HEALTH-RESORTS. — Besides  the  numerous  and 
widely  known  mineral  springs  of  the  Yellowstone  National  Park,  of  which 
more  extended  mention  will  be  made  in  a  chapter  devoted  exclusively  to 
matters  descriptive  of  that  region  of  marvels,  the  HUNTER'S  HOT  SPRINGS, 
near  Springdale,  just  east  of  Livingston,  in  the  Yellowstone  Valley;  the  FERRIS 
HOT  SPRINGS,  near  Bozeman,  in  the  Gallatin  Valley;  the  WHITE  SULPHUR 


38  A    RAMBLE    IN    WONDERLAND. 

SPRINGS  of  the  Smith  Valley,  northeast  of  Townsend,  on  the  Northern  Pacific 
Railroad;  the  BOULDER  HOT  SPRINGS  in  Jefferson  County;  the  PIPESTONE 
SPRINGS,  on  the  "Butte  Air  Line;  "  the  HELENA  HOT  SPRINGS,  and  others  of  a 
somewhat  similar  nature,  not  far  from  Missoula,  are  rapidly  attaining  promi- 
nence as  watering-places  possessing  merit  equal,  if  not  superior,  to  the  Hot 
Springs  of  Arkansas  in  the  way  of  medicinal  properties,  particularly  in  the  case 
of  scrofulous  and  rheumatic  diseases. 

HUNTING  AND  FISHING. — No  state  in  all  this  broad  land  affords  such 
princely  sport  with  either  rod  or  rifle  as  does  Montana.  Nearly  every  one  of 
its  numerous  streams  and  charming  lakes  is  well  stocked  with  mountain-trout, 
and  grayling  are  found  in  several  localities.  Grouse,  sage-hens,  ducks,  geese, 
brant,  and  swans  are  numerous  in  autumn;  and  grizzly  bears,  deer,  elks,  cari- 
bou, antelopes,  moose,  mountain  sheep  and  goats,  and  mountain  lions  are  to  be 
had  the  year  round. 

Through  this  exceedingly  picturesque  region,  comprising  noble  mountain 
ranges,  beautiful  valleys,  great,  rolling  plains,  and  magnificent  rivers,  the 
Northern  Pacific  Railroad  runs  in  a  southeast  to  northwest  direction  for  a 
distance  of  about  800  miles,  and  operates  numerous  branch  roads  reaching 
almost  every  fertile  valley  and  productive  mining-camp  in  the  State. 

NORTHERN    IDAHO. 

The  northern  part,  or  "  panhandle,"  of  the  new  State  of  Idaho  is  a  region 
of  lofty  mountain  ranges  and  narrow  valleys;  of  beautiful  and  picturesque 
lakes  and  forests  of  valuable  timber.  Its  chief  wealth  is  to  be  found  in  its 
inexhaustible  mines  of  lead,  silver  and  gold;  though  its  fertile  vales  are  being 
rapidly  settled,  and  are  fast  becoming  the  homes  of  prosperous  ranchmen. 
Lakes  Pend  d'Oreille  (P6n-dS-ray')  and  Coeur  d'Alene  (Kor-de-lane'),  two  of 
America's  loveliest  lakes,  here  lie  surrounded  by  frowning  mountains,  whose 
snowy  peaks  are  reflected  in  their  clear,  blue  depths.  Both  these  lakes  are 
quite  large  and  deep;  abound  with  trout  and  other  fish,  and  are  fast  becoming 
popular  as  resorts  for  pleasure  and  recreation.  The  main  line  of  the  Northern 
Pacific  skirts  along  the  northerly  shore  of  Lake  Pend  d'Oreille  for  a  distance 
of  several  miles,  affording  a  charming  view  of  its  island-dotted  bosom.  The 
best  farming  districts  lie  adjacent  to  and  along  the  western  boundary,  and  are 
traversed  by  the  Northern  Pacific,  a  branch  of  which  likewise  runs  through  the 
rich  Cceur  d'Alene  mining  district,  leaving  the  main  line  at  De  Smet,  Mont., 
and  rejoining  it  near  Spokane,  Wash.  The  feature  of  this  line,  aside  from 
mining  interests,  is  the  delightful  boat-ride  from  Mission  on  the  Coeur  d'Alene 
River  and  Lake  to  Coeur  d'Alene  City. 

This  region,  in  fact  the  entire  State,  offers  an  attractive  field  for  mining 
enterprise  and  mining  capital.  In  the  extreme  northern  portion  of  the  State, 


A  kAMULE  IN  WONDERLAND.  30 

there  is  another  charming  lake — Lake  Kaniksu— surrounded  by  mountains  of 
untold  mineral  wealth,  rendered  accessible  by  the  advent  of  this  great  conti- 
nental railroad,  and  rapidly  attracting  the  notice  of  the  miner  and  sportsman. 
All  lakes  and  streams  teem  with  trout  and  other  food  and  game  fish,  and 
small  steamers  ply  upon  the  navigable  watejs,  of  the  Snake  River  and  upon 
Lakes  Coeur  d'Alene  and  Pend  d'Oreille. 

WASHINGTON. 

Partially  explored  by  I^ewis  and  Clarke  in  1805;  linked  with  the  fortunes  of 
John  Jacob  Astor  in  1810,  and  during  a  subsequent  decade;  the  theatre  of  a 
rich  fur  trade  in  1830,  and  the  well-nigh  casus  belli  of  the  "54°  40'  or  fight" 
enthusiasts  of  1845,  this  grand  domain  in  1880  possessed  but  75,000  inhabi- 
tants; while  the  census  of  1890  accredits  it  with  a  population  of  some  360,000 
active,  intelligent,  progressive  citizens,  severally  and  unitedly  engaged  in 
upbuilding  its  cities,  developing  its  vast  natural  resources  of  mine  and  forest, 
and  tilling  its  fruitful  soil. 

Such,  in  brief  outline,  is  the  history  and  present  status  of  the  forty-second 
State  admitted  to  the  American  Union,  toward  whose  ocean-washed  shores  the 
Star  of  Empire  beckons  the  home-seeker  and  the  husbandman,  the  tradesman 
and  mechanic,  the  dairyman  and  the  orchardist,  the  miner  and  the  lumberman, 
and  the  push  and  progressive  intelligence  of  the  world. 

By  way  of  general  description,  the  State  may  be  said  to  be  340  miles  in 
length  from  east  to  west  and  240  miles  in  width  from  north  to  south,  extend- 
ing from  the  international  boundary  to  the  Columbia  River;  its  total  area  being 
about  45,000,000  acres,  of  which  one-third  is  covered  by  forest,  another 
15,000,000  acres  adapted  to  cultivation,  and  the  remainder  made  up  of  grazing- 
lands,  mineral  lands,  lakes,  rivers,  bays,  etc. 

The  Cascade  Range  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains,  which  traverses  the 
western  portion  of  the  State  in  a  nearly  direct  line  from  north  to  south — with 
an  average  elevation  of  6,000  feet — forms  a  giant  barrier  between  the  eastern 
and  western  segments  of  the  commonwealth,  and  exerts  a  curious  and  potent 
influence  upon  the  climate,  productiveness,  and  general  aspect  of  either  section. 

Covering  both  slopes  of  the  Cascades,  and  extending  westward  to  the  very 
waves  of  the  Pacific  Ocean,  the  face  of  the  country  is  hidden  by  a  forest  mantle 
of  dark-green  such  as,  perhaps,  Old  Mother  Earth  has  never  produced  the 
counterpart. 

From  the  crest  of  the  Cascades  to  the  ocean,  the  distance  is  about  100 
miles;  the  descent  being  at  first  steep,  then  gradual,  and  the  slope  here  and 
there  carved  and  crannied  into  sunny  vales  of  remarkable  fertility. 

Parallel  with  the  Cascades,  and  within  a  few  miles  of  the  Pacific,  extends 
the  Coast  Range— a  chain  of  low  mountains  from  1,500  to  3,000  feet  in  altitude, 


40  A  RAMBLE  IN  WONDERLAND. 

terminating  at  the  Strait  of  Fuca  in  what  are  locally  designated  the  Olympic 
Mountains —  a  spur  of  the  main  chain  extending  westward  from  Puget  Sound 
to  Cape  Flattery. 

Innumerable  streams  flow  from  these  various  mountain  chains  and  spurs, 
each  watering  and  draining  as  well  the  surface  of  a  little  valley,  which,  if 
limited  in  area,  as  all  are,  is  nevertheless  a  marvel  of  productiveness,  awaiting 
only  the  plowshare  of  the  husbandman  to  make  its  rich  soil  laugh  with  abun- 
dant harvests,  the  deft  hand  of  the  orchardist  to  fill  the  air  with  the  perfume  of 
peach-blossoms,  and  the  coming  of  the  dairyman  and  the  bee-keeper  to  make 
its  clover-fields  literally  flow  with  milk  and  honey.  % 

The  eastern  slope  of  the  Cascades  is  more  abrupt,  resting  at  its  base  upon 
a  vast  table-land  extending  eastward  to  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

This  is  part  and  parcel  of  the  great  Rocky  Mountain  Plateau  that  stretches 
away  from  the  ice-fields  of  the  Arctic  to  the  mesas  of  Mexico.  That  portion 
of  this  great  elevated  plain  lying  within  the  State  of  Washington  is  drained  by 
the  Columbia  River  and  its  tributaries,  and  is  very  properly  termed  "  The 
Columbia  Basin."  Its  general  elevation  is  about  4,000  feet  above  sea-level; 
its  valleys,  of  which  it  has  a  goodly  number,  are  fertile,  and  its  high,  rolling 
"divides"  afford  excellent  pasturage.  This  is  the  famed  grain-belt  of  the 
State,  and  the  especial  domain,  likewise,  of  the  horse,  cattle,  and  sheep 
rancher. 

Besides  cereals,  fruit  and  vegetables  of  all  kinds  common  to  temperate 
latitudes  are  readily  grown,  and  yield  abundantly,  though  much  of  the  soil 
requires  irrigation. 

PUGET  SOUND  is  a  large  inlet,  or  rather  series  of  inlets,  penetrating  deeply 
the  northwestern  part  of  the  State,  and  contains  many  islands  and  numerous 
safe,  deep,  and  roomy  harbors.  It  has  a  shore-line  of  1,843  miles,  and  is  con- 
nected with  the  Pacific  Ocean  by  the  Strait  of  Juan  de  Fuca,  which  is  eighty 
miles  in  length,  and  varies  in  width  from  eleven  to  twenty-five  miles. 

Clustering  about  the  shores  of  this  great  inland  archipelago  are  Tacoma, 
Seattle,  Olympia  (the  capital  of  the  State),  Port  Townsend,  Fairhaven,  Everett, 
New  Whatcom,  Blaine,  Anacortes,  Steilacoom,  Port  Angeles,  and  other  cities 
and  sea-ports  of  Washington,  while  just  across  the  strait  is  Victoria,  B.  C., 
upon  the  Island  of  Vancouver,  with  which,  as  with  all  other  points  on  the 
sound  not  reached  by  its  road,  the  Northern  Pacific  has  direct  communication 
by  its  steamers. 

Two  large  bays  (Gray's  and  Willapa  harbors)  indent  the  coast  to  the  south  and 
west  of  Puget  Sound,  affording  excellent  harbors  for  shipping,  and  the  former 
having  recently  acquired  direct  communication  with  all  parts  of  the  State 
through  the  construction  by  the  Northern  Pacific  of  a  branch  line  connecting 
with  the  Pacific  Division  of  its  main  line  at  Lake  View  and  Centralia,  respect- 
ively. A  line  is  under  construction  from  Chehalis,  on  the  Pacific  Division,  to 


A   RAMBLE   IN    WONDERLAND.  .\\ 

South  Bend,  a  most  promising  young  city  on  Willapa  Harbor,  and  will  prob- 
ably be  completed  by  July  i,  1892. 

THE  CLIMATE  OF  WASHINGTON  is  mild,  equable,  and  healthful.  That  of 
the  western  or  coast  section  of  the  State  is  remarkable  for  its  equability,  the 
winter  months  being  warm  and  humid,  and  the  summers  comparatively  cool 
and  dry.  The  thermometer  rarely  falls  to  zero  in  winter,  and  as  rarely  reaches 
85°  in  midday  in  summer.  Rains  are  prevalent  during  the  winter  season,  but 
are  generally  light.  A  snow-storm,  except  upon  the  mountains,  is  an  occur- 
rence so  unusual  as  to  create  wide-spread  comment.  Violent  wind-storms  are 
almost  wholly  unknown,  and  the  rumbling  of  thunder  a  sound  with  which  the 
ear  is  seldom  greeted.  The  average  temperature  of  this  portion  of  the  State 
is:  For  spring,  52°;  for  summer,  67°;  for  autumn,  53°;  and  for  winter,  38°. 
Eastern  Washington  possesses  a  climate  colder  in  winter  and  warmer  in  sum- 
mer than  the  western  or  Trans-Cascade  section,  and  has  much  less  average 
rainfall,  though  it  receives  a  fair  supply  of  moisture  in  the  way  of  a  considerable 
snowfall. 

LUMBERING,  AGRICULTURE,  AND  MINING  are  the  three  chief  resources  of 
Washington,  inherent  in  the  soil;  and,  together,  they  have,  developed  for  the 
State  a  surprising  and  rapidly  increasing  commerce  both  by  land  and  sea. 
Western  Washington  is  the  lumber,  hop,  and  fruit  section,  while  Eastern 
Washington  is  also  quite  extensively  engaged  in  fruit-culture,  and  greatly 
excels  in  grain  and  stock-raising.  Hops  grow  well  almost  anywhere  in  the 
State,  but  are  grown  with  the  greatest  average  success  and  profit  in  the  "yards" 
devoted  to  their  culture  in  the  vicinity  of  Puyallup  (Pn-al'-ap),  Kent,  and  the 
Puget  Sound  country  in  general.  The  yield  in  this  locality  is  from  1,200  to 
4,000  pounds  an  acre,  and  the  average  cost  of  raising  and  preparing  for  market, 
9  cents  a  pound. 

Red  and  black  raspberries,  service-berries  (June-berries),  huckleberries, 
choke-cherries,  and  the  like,  grow  wild  in  great  profusion,  and  apples,  apricots, 
cherries,  peaches,  pears,  plums,  prunes,  and  quinces  are  the  principal  orchard 
fruits.  The  culture  of  grapes  and  tobacco  is  yet  barely  begun,  though 
sufficiently  experimented  with  to  insure  success. 

MINING  is  yet  in  its  infancy  in  Washington,  though  extensive  and  valuable 
deposits  of  coal,  iron,  lead,  copper,  tin,  zinc,  cinnabar,  nickel,  silver,  and  gold 
are  known  to  exist  in  various  parts  of  the  State,  and  have  been  already  "pros- 
pected "  somewhat.  The  development  of  coal-mines  has  progressed  much  more 
rapidly  than  that  of  the  mines  of  gold,  silver,  etc.,  and  the  same  may  be  said 
regarding  the  quarrying  of  lime  and  building-stones.  Coal  of  excellent  quality 
and  in  large  quantities  is  being  daily  mined  and  shipped  from  six  separate  dis- 
tricts within  the  State;  these  are  Bellingham  Bay,  north  of  Seattle;  Bucoda, 
Durham,  Wilkeson,  and  Carbonado,  in  the  vicinity  of  Tacoma,  and  Roslyn,  just 
east  of  the  "  divide,"  in  the  Cascades. 


42  A    RAMBLE   IN    WONDERLAND. 

THE  FISHERIES  OF  WASHINGTON  are  worthy  of  mention,  and  will  eventually 
prove  of  very  great  value  to  the  State.  The  canning  of  salmon  has  for  several 
years  been  an  important  industry,  and  added  not  a  little  to  the  volume  of  the 
State's  exports.  Cod,  halibut,  herring,  sturgeon,  clams,  oysters,  and  lobsters 
are  also  quite  abundant,  though  their  taking  has  never  been  prosecuted  with 
anything  like  the  vigor  manifested  by  Atlantic  Coast  fishermen,  and  which 
has  built  up  and  for  half  a  century  almost  wholly  sustained  many  a  New 
England  town. 

SCENIC  ATTRACTIONS. — No  part  of  the  Union  can  boast  scenery  of  greater 
sublimity  and  grandeur  than  that  of  the  Cascade  and  Olympic  Mountains, 
along  the  dalles  and  cascades  of  the  Columbia,  in  the  vicinity  of  Lake  Chelan, 
Mount  Tacoma,  and  the  majestic  Falls  of  the  Snoqualmie. 

GAME. — Bears,  elks,  deer,  mountain  sheep,  and  mountain  goats  abound; 
grouse  and  pheasants  are  numerous;  and  wild  ducks,  geese,  and  brant  afford 
autumnal  coast-shooting,  such  as  sportsmen  along  the  Atlantic  seaboard  rarely 
enjoy. 

Trouting  is  excellent  in  nearly  all  the  lakes  and  streams  on  either  side  of 
the  Cascades. 

Washington  has  five  lakes  of  considerable  size  that  have  acquired  something 
of  coastwise  celebrity  as  pleasure  and  health  resorts.  These  are  Lakes  Wash- 
ington and  Union,  adjoining  the  suburbs  of  Seattle;  American  Lake,  adjacent 
to  the  City  of  Tacoma;  Lake  Chelan,  in  the  Okanogan  mining  region,  and 
Medical  Lake,  on  the  Central  Washington  Branch  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Rail- 
road, eight  miles  from  Cheney,  and  twenty-one  miles  westward  from  Spokane. 
This  last-named  lake,  though  considerably  smaller  than  the  others — being  only 
one  and  one-half  miles  long  by  half  a  mile  wide — is  fast  becoming  celebrated  by 
reason  of  the  curative  properties  of  its  waters.  It  occupies  an  elevated 
plateau,  and  is  skirted  by  a  growth  of  pines,  firs,  and  tamaracks,  which  add 
greatly  to  its  landscape  beauty.  Its  medicinal  properties  are  said  to  be  very 
efficacious,  especially  in  diseases  of  a  rheumatic  nature,  and  it  is  estimated  that 
fully  5,000  persons  annually  visit  the  lake  for  treatment.  It  is,  of  course,  a 
summer-resort,  and  has  hotels,  bath-houses,  and  splendid  drives.  There  are 
other  lakes  in  the  immediate  vicinity  well  stocked  with  fish. 

The  Northern  Pacific  operates  about  750  miles  of  railway  in  the  State  of 
Washington,  and  there  is  no  town  or  city  of  importance,  no  sea-port  either 
present  or  prospective,  and  no  mining  district  or  lumbering  or  agricultural 
region  which  its  main  line,  or  some  one  or  more  of  its  numerous  branches,  does 
not  penetrate. 

OREGON 

Resembles  Washington  in  its  various  features  of  surface,  soil,  and  climate. 
Like  the  latter,  it  is  divided  into  two  separate  and  entirely  distinct  climatic 
sections  by  the  Cascade  Mountains. 


A    RAMBLE    IN    WONDERLAND. 


Western  Oregon  possesses  a  climate  somewhat  similar  to  that  of  Western 
Washington,  and  its  extensive,  fertile,  and  beautiful  Willamette  Valley  enjoys  a 
world-wide  reputation  such  as  few  localities,  even  upon  the  favored  Pacific 
Slope,  have  acquired. 

It  has  long  been  well  settled  by  thrifty  farmers,  stock-raisers,  and  fruit- 
growers, and  supports  a  number  of  towns  and  cities  of  considerable  size,  the 
most  important  being  Salem  (the  capital)  and  Portland. 

The  Umpqua  and  Rogue  River  valleys,  of  Southern  Oregon,  are  also  noted 
as  fine  farming  and  fruit-growing  sections.  The  Coast  Range  separates  the 
Willamette  Valley  from  the  ocean;  and  both  this  and  the  Cascade  Range  are 
heavily  timbered. 

Eastern  Oregon  is  for  the  most  part  rather  too  arid  for  successful  farming, 
and  is  chiefly  devoted  to  the  raising  of  cattle,  horses  and  sheep.  This  section, 
however,  contains  a  portion  of  the  same  rich  wheat-belt  that  extends  through- 
out Eastern  Washington  from  Spokane  to  Walla  Walla.  In  Oregon  this  belt 
lies  between  the  Blue  Mountains  and  the  Columbia  River,  embracing  almost 
all  of  the  county  of  Umatilla. 

There  are  also  two  quite  large  valleys — the  Grande  Ronde  and  Wallowa — 
where  farming  is  successfully  carried  on  without  irrigation. 

The  State's  chief  exports  are  wheat,  wool,  lumber  and  salmon. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

YELLOWSTONE  NATIONAL  PARK — ITS   HOT    SPRINGS — GEYSERS — STREAMS- 
LAKES — FALLS — CANONS — CASCADES  AND  NOBLE  MOUNTAINS. 

THE  WONDERLAND  OF  THE  WORLD. 


USTLY  celebrated  as  is  the  North  American  Continent  for 
mountain,  woodland,  lake,  and  sea-side  resorts  calculated  to 
conduce  to  the  health  and  recreation  of  mankind,  it  has  been 
left  to  the  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century  to  roll  away 
the  barriers  of  inaccessibility,  and  dispel  the  mists  of  misin- 
formation and  skepticism  which  have  hedged  in  and  enshrouded 
the  wonderland  of  the  world — Yellowstone  Park. 

Prior  to  the  building  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad,  very  few  travelers 
cared  to  undertake  a  tour  of  this  remarkable  region,  situated  midway  between 
the  Great  Lakes  and  the  Western  Ocean,  in  the  very  heart  itself  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains;  but  with  the  advent  of  that  great  transcontinental  thoroughfare 
in  close  proximity  to  its  northern  boundary,  and  the  construction  of  commodi- 
ous hotels  and  substantial  wagon-roads  within  its  borders,  thousands  have 
annually  been  attracted  thither,  and  all  have  departed  deeply  impressed,  not 
alone  by  the  wild  beauty  and  grandeur  of  its  scenery  and  its  natural  wonders, 
but,  in  degree  scarcely  less,  that  a  region  of  so  much  interest  and  so  readily 
accessible  should  have  had  for  its  astonished  visitors  only  the  red  man  and  the 
wandering  trapper  for  so  many  years,  while  Atlantic  steamers  are  almost  daily 
thronged  with  allegedly  patriotic  Americans  eager  to  undertake  long  and  dis- 
comforting ocean  voyages  to  visit  scenes  less  worthy  their  appreciation. 

In  general  topography,  Yellowstone  Park  is  a  large  table-land,  fifty-five  by 
sixty-five  miles  in  extent,  embracing  an  area  of  3,575  square  miles,  of  an  average 
elevation  of  7,000  feet  above  the  sea;  the  whole  environed  round  about  by 
mountain-spurs  whose  glistening  peaks,  clad  in  eternal  snow,  rear  their  crests 
from  3,000  to  5,000  feet  higher  than  the  table-land  itself. 

It  would  be  difficult  indeed  to  find  a  like  area  presenting  a  greater  diversity 
of  character;  and  aside  from  its  curious  hot  springs  and  awe-inspiring  geysers, 
the  average  lover  of  the  sublime  in  nature  will  find  sufficient  in  a  study  of  the 
majestic  falls  and  grand  canon  of  the  Yellowstone  River  to  amply  repay  a 

(46) 


A    RAMBLE   IN    WONDERLANt).  47 

visit,  to  say  nothing  of  picturesque  mountain  lakes,  wild  gorges,  and  dancing 
cascades  with  which  the  reservation  abounds;  while  the  disciple  of  Isaak 
Walton  will  find  it  a  veritable  paradise  of  sport  in  the  way  of  unrivaled  trout 
and  grayling  fishing,  in  the  enjoyment  of  which  not  even  the  traditional  bent 
pin  and  plebeian  grasshopper  are  to  be  despised  by  the  more  fortunate  possessor 
of  Limerick  hook  and  silken  fly. 

Within  the  boundaries  of  this  wondrous  geyser-land  are  upward  of  3,000 
hot  mineral  springs  and  seventy-one  active  and  powerful  geysers,  grouped  in 
"basins,"  which  from  June  i,  to  October  i,  are  daily  traversed  by  the  stages 
of  the  Yellowstone  Park  Association. 

The  exclusive  control  of  the  management  and  protection  of  this  mammoth 
pleasure-ground  is  vested  in  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior;  so  that  not  only  are 
the  proper  policing  of  the  Park  and  the  preservation  of  its  multifarious  objects 
of  interest  and  its  game  animals  assured,  but  the  tourist  guaranteed  against 
extortion. 

Leaving  the  main  line  of  the  Northern  Pacific  at  Livingston,  at  the  head  of 
the  main  valley  of  the  Yellowstone,  a  ride  of  fifty-one  miles  over  its  Park 
Branch  to  the  southward,  along  the  west  bank  of  the  Upper  Yellowstone; 
through  Paradise  Valley,  famed  for  its  scenery,  its  farms,  its  trout-fishing,  and 
its  autumn  duck-shooting;  on  through  narrow,  rocky  "Yankee  Jim"  Cafion; 
along  the  base  of  Cinnabar  Mountain,  in  plain  view  of  the  giant  "  slide,"  where 
Fancy  pictures  Lucifer  as  a  tobogganist,  brings  the  traveler  to  Cinnabar  Station 
— the  terminus  of  the  branch  road — hard  by  the  northern  boundary  of  the  Park. 

Exchanging  seats  in  the  comfortable  chair-car  for  others  equally  inviting 
in  the  great,  roomy  stages  in  waiting,  tourist-guests  are  driven  to  Mammoth 
Hot  Springs — seven  miles  distant — arriving  at  its  spacious  hotel  in  time  for 
dinner. 

Here,  within  a  few  minutes'  walk  of  the  hotel,  and  occupying  a  mound  of 
carbonate  of  lime  embracing  170  acres,  is  a  group  of  fifty  hot  mineral  springs, 
whose  inexhaustible  fountains  have  for  ages  boiled  and  bubbled  and  toiled 
to  upbuild  the  grand  system  of  terraces  out  of  which  they  issue.  These 
terraces  were  formerly  known  among  explorers,  geologists,  and  casual  travel- 
ers as  the  "  Pink  Terraces  of  the  Gardiner  River,"  but  are  now  more  gener- 
ally referred  to  as  Mammoth  Hot  Springs. 

Adjacent  to  the  hot  spring  terraces  is  the  crest  of  another  gentle  accliv- 
ity, upon  which  is  located  Camp  Sheridan— the  headquarters  of  the  superinten- 
dent and  his  cavalry  troop,  to  whom  the  patrolling  of  the  large  reserve  is  a 
constant  care. 

From  this  point  the  visitor  starts  upon  his  six-day  tour  of  inspection  of  the 
geyser-basins,  the  falls,  canons,  lakes,  and  cascades  of  this  interesting  region; 
climbing  a  long,  sloping  hill  leading  up  to  the  east  entrance  of  Golden  Gate 
a  rocky  gorge  affording  the  only  feasible  means  of  exit  southward  from  the 


48  A    RAMBLE    IN    WONDERLAND. 

narrow  valley  of  the  Gardiner  River.  The  roadway  through  this  pass  is  1,000 
feet  higher  than  the  hotel  at  Mammoth  Hot  Springs,  and,  though  hardly  a 
mile  in  length,  cost  $14,000. 

Eight  miles  farther  south  is  Obsidian  Cliff,  or  Glass  Mountain,  where, 
towering  above  the  narrow  stage-road  to  a  height  of  250  feet,  is  an  escarpment 
of  glistening  volcanic  glass  (obsidian),  arranged  in  vertical  columns,  pentag- 
onal in  form,  but  more  or  less  irregular  and  distorted.  The  prevailing  color 
of  this  mineral  glass  is  jet-black,  and  the  road-bed  along  the  base  of  the  cliff  is 
constructed  almost  entirely  of  its  broken  fragments. 

Numerous  chips  of  obsidian,  and  broken  or  unfinished  arrow-heads,  etc., 
occasionally  found  in  the  vicinity,  have  lead  many  to  suppose  that  this  spot  has 
in  times  past  been  quite  generally  frequented  by  the  red  men  of  the  Rocky 
Mountain  tribes;  and  possibly  used  to  be  quite  as  celebrated  among  them  as 
the  famed  "  pipe-stone  quarries "  of  Minnesota  have  been  for  ages  among 
their  brethren  of  the  prairies. 

The  first  of  the  geyser-basins  reached  by  the  visitor  is  Norris  Basin — twenty- 
two  miles  south  of  Mammoth  Springs — embracing  an  area  of  about  six  square 
miles,  through  which  the  stages  run  on  their  way  to  Lower,  Midway,  and  Upper 
geyser-basins  still  farther  to  the  south.  "  Norris  "  is  one  of  the  most  elevated 
of  the  several  thermal  basins  of  the  park,  being  7,527  feet  above  the  sea.  Its 
hot  springs,  which  are  numerous  and  widely  distributed,  are  in  many  instances 
exquisitely  formed  and  highly  interesting;  though  its  geysers  (with  perhaps 
three  or  four  exceptions)  possess  less  of  the  awfully  grand,  eruptive  power 
which  characterizes  most  of  the  geysers  of  the  three  basins  just  mentioned. 

From  Norris  to  the  Lower  (Firehole)  Basin,  the  distance  is  twenty  miles; 
the  scenery  along  the  route  being  quite  charming,  particularly  in  and  about 
Gibbon  Canon — a  narrow,  rocky  defile  four  miles  in  length,  whose  cliffs  seem 
reluctant  to  open  wide  enough  to  allow  both  the  stage-road  and  the  clear,  cold 
waters  of  the  Gibbon  River  a  passage. 

The  wild  grandeur  of  this  rocky  chasm  is  difficult  of  adequate  portrayal. 
On  this  side,  precipitous  bluffs  hang  high  above  the  roadway;  on  that,  a  dense 
growth  of  pines  clothes  the  steep  mountain-side  with  a  drapery  of  dark-green. 
Here,  a  hissing  steam-vent  fills  the  air  with  sulphurous  vapors;  there,  a 
fiercely  boiling  caldron  pours  its  scalding  overflow  across  the  roadway  beneath 
the  very  feet  of  the  stage-horses.  And,  as  a  fitting  denouement,  at  the  canon's 
exit,  the  foam-flecked  river,  tossed  and  fretted  by  tortuous  windings,  obstruct- 
ing bowlders,  and  rocky  rapids,  plunges  eighty-four  feet  into  the  gorge  below, 
and  deflecting  sharply  westward  is  lost  to  view,  leaving  the  tourist  to  climb  a 
succession  of  pine-clad  terraces,  and  gaining  at  last  the  crest  of  Teton  Hill,  to 
catch  a  restful  glimpse  of  the  panorama  of  the  Valley  of  the  Firehole  and  the 
forest- covered  mounuin-slopes  around  and  beyond.  Below,  in  the  foreground, 
is  the  new,  commodious,  and  nicely  furnished  hotel  near  Fountain  Geyser,  in 


A    RAMBLE    IN    WONDERLAND.  51 

Lower  Geyser-Basin,  or  "  Firehole  Basin,"  as  it  used  to  be  called— five  miles 
distant.  Three  miles  beyond,  the  white  wreaths  of  vapor  floating  above  the 
tree-tops  mark  the  location  of  Excelsior  Geyser,  in  the  Midway  Basin;  while 
seventy  miles  away  to  the  south  rise  the  snow-crowned  "  sentinel  peaks  "  of 
the  Teton  Mountains,  grim,  silent,  and  spectre-like. 

Scattering  groups  of  hot  springs,  to  the  number  of  693,  exclusive  of  seven- 
teen geysers,  dot  the  broad,  marshy,  sulphur-smelling  area  of  the  Lower  Basin, 
the  elevation  of  which  is  7,252  feet.  This  is  one  of  the  much-frequented  game- 
resorts  of  the  Park.  Elks  and  deer  are  frequently  seen,  as  are  also — once  in 
a  while — straggling  members  of  the  band  of  buffaloes  which  are  carefully 
watched  and  kept  within  the  protecting  limits  of  the  reservation,  and  represent 
about  all  there  is  left  of  the  once  countless  herds  of  bison  that  only  a  few 
years  ago  roamed  the  great  prairies  of  the  West,  and  contributed  a  proudly 
distinctive  species  to  the  fauna  of  North  America. 

As  a  rule,  the  visitor  spends  the  second  day  of  his  tour  in  viewing  those 
eruptive  wonders  of  the  Lower,  Midway,  and  Upper  basins — the  geysers — the 
scalding  discharges  of  several  of  which  attain  a  height  varying  from  100  to  300 
feet,  the  eruptions  of  the  larger  ones  being  accompanied  by  a  deafening  roar 
and  a  perceptible  trembling  of  the  ground.  These  volcanic  springs  occupy,  as 
a  general  thing,  mound-shaped  platforms  of  silicious  sinter,  or  geyserite — the 
result  of  ages  of  precipitation — and,  in  most  cases,  have  nozzle-like  cones  of 
geyserite  immediately  surrounding  their  craters. 

Entrancingly  entertaining  as  all  the  geysers  of  the  three  thermal  basins 
drained  by  Firehole  River  certainly  are,  "Old  Faithful"  stands  beyond  compare 
in  point  of  popular  interest.  Occupying  a  conspicuous  mound  at  the  extreme 
southern  limit  of  the  Upper  Basin,  in  plain  view  from  the  hotel  a  few  rods  dis- 
tant, this  reliable  friend  of  the  tourist  rises  with  him  in  the  morning,  entertains 
him  during  the  day,  and  claims  his  admiring  gaze  at  night,  when,  if  there  be  a 
full  moon,  the  spectacle  presented  is  sublime  beyond  the  power  of  tongue  or 
pen  to  describe. 

Day  and  night,  through  summer's  heat  and  winter's  cold,  this  geyser,  with 
almost  chronometer  regularity,  shoots  upward  its  sparkling  columns  of  hot, 
steaming  water  (to  a  height  of  150  feet)  at  intervals  of  sixty-three  minutes, 
each  display  lasting  about  three  minutes. 

Tourists  are  conveyed  from  the  Upper  Basin  direct  to  the  gem  par  excellence 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains — Yellowstone  Lake.  The  construction  of  a  substantial 
wagon-road  of  easy  grade,  from  Old  Faithful  Geyser,  past  Kepler's  Cascades 
and  across  the  Continental  Divide,  to  connect  with  the  "  falls  andcafion  road  " 
at  the  "  Outlet  "  of  the  Lake,  enables  stages  to  make  a  complete  circuit  of  the 
most  interesting  points  of  the  Park  lying  to  the  south  and  southeast  of  Morris, 
without  retracing  any  part  of  the  route. 

This  new  route  is  one  of  the  most  delightful  of  the  several  thoroughfares 


52  A    RAMBLE   IN    WONDERLAND. 

of  the  reservation,  leading,  as  it  does,  through  primeval  forests,  amid  mount- 
ain scenery  unsurpassed,  with  here  and  there  green-carpeted  meadows  and 
open  parks,  and  broad  expanses  of  blue  water  to  relieve  the  monotony  of  tall 
pines  and  snow-capped  mountain-peaks. 

At  the  eastern  extremity  of  the  lake,  which  is  about  fifteen  by  twenty  miles 
in  extent,  is  located  another  of  the  larger  hotels  of  the  reserve.  This  excellent 
hostelry,  like  that  near  Fountain  Geyser,  in  the  Lower  Basin,  is  of  recent  con- 
struction, and  is  admirably  suited  to  the  needs  of  the  large  number  of  guests 
that  daily  visit  the  peerless  lake,  close  beside  whose  pebbly  margin  it  stands, 
and  of  whose  broad  expanse  of  limpid  blue  waves  it  affords  a  sightly  and 
charming  view. 

From  this  point,  a  smooth,  nearly  level  wagon-road  follows  down  the  open 
valley  of  the  Yellowstone  River — eighteen  miles — to  the  Great  Falls  and 
Grand  Canon,  whose  awful  grandeur  must  be  viewed  to  be  even  faintly  realized. 
The  unrivaled  river  makes  two  mighty  leaps  ere  it  reaches  the  bottom  of  the 
canon,  which  is  ten  miles  in  length  and  from  1,200  to  2,000  feet  in  depth. 
The  upper  fall  is  140  feet  in  height,  and  the  lower,  or  "  Great  Falls,"  360  feet. 
Each  is  worthy  a  special  trip  to  see.  A  few  miles  to  the  north  is  Mount  Wash- 
burn — the  observatory  of  the  Park — whose  rounded  summit,  easy  of  ascent, 
rises  10,346  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  From  its  bald  crest  a  grand  pan- 
orama is  outspread.  Far  above,  the  proud  eagle  poises  on  motionless  wing,  a 
mere  speck  against  the  zenith.  Below,  the  eye  traces  the  broad  ribbon  of  sil- 
ver that  winds  through  prairie  and  woodland  until  it  is  lost  to  sight  in  the 
chasm  into  which  it  leaps.  That  charming  sheet  of  blue  water  is  its  source. 
There  are  the  geyser-basins,  thirty  miles  away  to  the  southwest,  their  presence 
betrayed  by  the  clouds  of  vapor  that  float  like  water-wraiths  above  them,  while 
round  about  on  every  hand  wide-rolling  expanses  of  shadowy  forest,  giant 
domes  of  rugged  mountain-peaks,  here  and  there  flecked  with  remnants  of  icy 
glaciers  of  dazzling  whiteness,  and  deep,  dark  canon-gorges  echoing  the  sullen 
roar  of  cataracts,  stretch  away  in  billowy  succession,  until  forest  and 
mountain-top,  glacier  and  gorge,  blend  with  the  blue  of  the  canopy  above  and 
vanish  into  nothingness. 

Large  as  is  the  accessible  portion  of  the  Park,  fully  two-thirds  its  area  is 
terra  incognita  to  all  save  the  occasional  enthusiast  with  the  time  and  hardihood 
necessary  to  the  scaling  of  mountain-crags  and  the  threading  of  forest 
labyrinths. 

In  the  northeastern  corner  of  the  reserve  are  vast  areas  strewn  with  the 
fossil  remains  of  animal  and  vegetable  life,  and  huge  trunks  of  petrified  trees, 
many  still  standing  erect  and  preserving  something  of  the  old-time  form  and 
grace  of  outline,  deep  down  among  whose  stony  roots  may  be  found  clusters 
of  beautiful  crystallizations,  varying  in  color  from  the  delicate  shades  of  pink 
to  deep  cherry,  while  handsome  crystals  of  colorless,  amethystine,  and  yellow- 


A    RAMBLE    IN    WONDERLAND. 


tinted  quartz,  in  endless  variety  of  size  and  form,  lie  scattered  in  reckless  pro- 
fusion on  every  hand. 

To  the  northeastward  of  Lake  Yellowstone,  between  the  Passamaria  Fork 
of  the  Big  Horn  River  and  the  east  fork  of  the  Yellowstone,  is  the  "  Hoodoo 
Region,"  or  "  Goblin  Land  " — designations  which  in  nowise  belie  the  character 
and  appearance  of  a  locality  in  which  volcanic  action  and  erosion  have  seem- 
ingly striven  each  to  outdo  the  other  in  the  production  of  fantastic  forms  and 
shapes.  To  the  superstitious  Indian  it  was  the  abode  of  evil  spirits.  To  the 
pale-face  trapper,  roused  from  his  slumbers  by  the  weird  mutterings  of  the 
voiceless  air,  the  entire  region  presented  an  enigma  to  the  satisfactory  solution 
of  which  the  term  "hoodoo  "  appeared  to  him  the  "open  sesame." 

The  rough  and  rugged  character  of  this  locality  makes  it  a  favorite  resort 
for  the  crag-loving  mountain  sheep  and  milk-white  mountain  goat,  whose  lambs 
and  kids  frisk  about  among  its  inaccessible  heights  and  fastnesses,  where  none 
but  the  mountain  lion  or  the  eagle  may  pursue. 

Sixty  miles  to  the  eastward  of  Mammoth  Hot  Springs,  and  just  beyond  the 
Park  boundary,  are  the  Clark  Fork  silver-mines,  between  which  and  the  Springs 
a  stage  makes  regular  trips  both  summer  and  winter. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  JOURNEY  WESTWARD  —  CITIES  AND  SCENERY  OF  THE  YELLOWSTONE 
VALLEY  —  TROUTING  IN  THE  YELLOWSTONE  —  SCENERY  ALONG  THE 
CLARK  FORK  —  CLIMBING  THE  CASCADE  MOUNTAINS  —  STAMPEDE 
TUNN-EL  —  ARRIVAL  AT  TACOMA. 

|ULY  28,  1891,  at  2.05  A.  M.,  I  stepped  on  board  the  Northern 
Pacific's  "  Pacific  Coast  Express  "  at  Fargo  —  North  Dakota's 
vvigorous  young  metropolis  —  equipped  with  pencil  and  note- 
book, a  six-ounce  "split  bamboo,"  a  quadruple  "multiplier" 
an  assortment  of  oiled-silk  lines,  a  box  of  "leaders"  and  book 
of  "flies,"  and  a  " duffle-bag"  stowed  with  outing-flannels,  a 
canvas  fishing-suit,  and  the  usual  line  of  etceteras  common  to  this  latitude,  and 
suited  to  a  large,  blonde  complexion,  with  intent  to  devote  the  succeeding 
five  weeks  to  the  carrying  out  of  the  design  casually  alluded  to  in  the  intro- 
ductory lines  and  initial  chapter  of  this  brochure. 

Telegraphic  advices  assured  me  that  F.  Jay  Haynes,  official  scenic  artist  of 
the  Northern  Pacific,  who  wa.s  to  assume  the  role  of  guardian  ad  litem,  as  it 
were,  and  who  had  been  sojourning  for  several  weeks  in  Yellowstone  Park, 
would  join  me  at  Livingston,  Mont.,  with  his  studio-car,  on  arrival  of  the  Park 
Branch  train  the  following  evening. 

The  day  that  had  just  contributed  its  quota  of  sensation  and  moral  deprav- 
ity to  the  already  plethoric  and  unsavory  record  of  the  past  had  been  one  of  the 
hottest  of  an  unusually  heated  term.  Even  the  moonbeams,  that  ever  and  anon 
pierced  the  veil  of  fleecy  clouds  that  slowly  and  majestically  sailed  athwart  the 
starlit  heavens  like  white-sailed  ships  upon  a  summer  sea,  bore  unmistakable 
proof,  convincing  "beyond  a  reasonable  doubt,"  in  their  warped  and  shriveled 
appearance,  that  the  caloric  of  yesternoon  had  not  been  entirely  eliminated 
from  the  circumambient  atmosphere  —  or  that  in  substance. 

Under  the  circumstances,  even  the  blissful  seclusion  and  luxurious  upholst- 
ery of  a  Northern  Pacific  bridal  apartment  would  scarcely  have  wooed  the 
drowsy  goddess  successfully.  (In  this  allusion  my  imagination  pictures  a 
bright-eyed,  rosy-fingered  Miss  Morpheus  —  temporarily  in  charge  of  the  Leth- 
ean distillery,  while  the  ancient  sleep-compeller  is  laid  up  with  the  gout;  and  if 


A    RAMBLE   IN   WONDERLAND.  55 

not  above  classical  criticism  on  the  score  of  mythological  inconsistency —  this 
being  to  a  greater  or  lesser  extent  an  age  of  free  thought  —  those  disposed  to 
find  fault  with  this  pseudo-nymph  of  my  creative  genius  are  quite  welcome  to 
recline  in  the  arms  of  Papa  Morpheus,  if  they  rest  any  better  that  way,  and 
leave  me  to  the  cuddling  embraces  and  crooning  lullabies  of  the  damsel,  or  to 
become  the  victim  of  insomnia,  as  the  case  may  be.) 

Declining  both  the  unoccupied  upper  berths — all  that  remained  in  the  way 
of  sleeping  accommodations  in  the  Pullmans — I  repaired  to  one  of  the  smok- 
ing-rooms, and  lighting  a  weed,  gazed  through  the  open  windows  out  upon 
the  sea  of  fast-ripening  grain  that  lay  shimmering  in  the  moonlight,  and 
stretched  away  in  billowy  simulation  on  every  hand.  Here  and  there  a  field 
of  yellow  barley  already  stood  in  the  "shock;"  and  everywhere  the  great 
trundling  machines  for  cutting  and  binding  grain  awaited  with  gleaming  sickles 
the  time  for  action. 

Although  I  had  gazed  hundreds  of  times  upon  these  same  fruitful  prairie 
farms  during  the  various  stages  of  grain-growth,  from  seed-time  until  harvest, 
had  listened  to  the  drone  of  the  bee  and  the  hum  of  the  steam  thresher,  the 
early  piping  of  the  curlew  and  the  "booming"  of  the  grouse,  I  seemed  to  find 
new  interest  springing  up  and  growing  within  me  as  I  looked  out  upon  the 
moving  panorama  of  wheat-field  and  meadow,  village  and  plain,  this  summer 
morning.  Recollection  took  me  by  the  hand  and  led  me  back  along  the 
shadowy  pathway  of  the  past  to  the  milestone  where  bold  Oliver  Dalrymple, 
here  upon  these  prairies,  opened  his  experimental  wheat-farm,  refuted  the 
statements  that  the  busy  tongue  of  slander  had  scattered  to  the  four  winds 
regarding  the  barren  character  of  the  region,  and  demonstrated  to  an  incred- 
ulous world  the  wonderful  fertility  of  North  Dakota's  soil  and  its  adaptability 
to  the  raising  of  cereals. 

And  now  I  looked  out  upon  this  identical  princely  demesne,  and  recalled 
the  doubt  and  anxiety  that  filled  every  breast  but  Mr.  Dalryraple's,  while  soil 
and  climate  were  being  weighed  in  the  balance,  as  it  were,  during  that  first 
crop-year. 

And  as  we  journeyed,  Fancy  met  us  by  the  way,  and  taking  from  the  folds 
of  her  flowing  vesture  a  scroll,  bade  us  look  upon  the  future  estate  of  the  Land 
of  the  Dakotahs.  What  a  change  !  Nearly  every  quarter-section  now  has  its 
tidy  farm-house.  Corn  vies  with  wheat  for  the  regal  crown  ;  and  honey-bees 
hum  amid  orchard-bloom.  Instead  of  a  population  of  200,000,  five  times  that 
number  of  sturdy,  prosperous  people  find  happy  homes  in  the  new  North  State, 
healthful  and  profitable  employment  in  tilling  her  more  than  ever  fruitful  soil, 
and  fame  and  fortune  in  developing  her  mines,  manufactures,  and  commerce. 

The  engineer's  sharp,  decisive  call  for  brakes,  and  the  unusual  swaying  of 
the  cars,  serve  to  recall  me  from  the  land  of  dreams  to  find  that  we  are  winding 
through' the  picturesque  bluffs  bordering  the  deep  valley  of  the  Sheyenne  ;  that 


56  A    RAMBLE    IN    WONDERLAND. 

my  cigar  has  long  since  ceased  to  burn,  and  that  I  have  been  asleep  nearly 
two  hours.  Soon  we  stop  at  Valley  City,  the  capital  of  Barnes  County,  its 
houses  and  streets  shaded  by  elms,  lindens,  and  cottonwoods  that  here  and 
there  cluster  in  cool,  restful-looking,  natural  groves  upon  the  banks  of  the 
tortuous  river. 

Early  as  was  the  hour  (4.50  A.  M.)  when  the  long  train  pulled  out  of  Valley 
City  and  began  climbing  the  rolling  prairie-divide  separating  the  valleys  of 
the  Sheyenne  and  the  James,  the  eastern  sky  was  already  crimsoning  with  the 
beams  of  the  rising  sun,  and  all  nature  seemed  to  be  awakening  from  a  season 
of  restful  slumber.  On  every  hand  flower-petals  were  beginning  to  open, 
birds  to  sing,  and  slender  columns  of  thin,  bluish  smoke  to  ascend  from  farm- 
house chimneys.  Anon,  as  the  train  speeds  past  a  near-by  farm-yard,  a  proud 
old  turkey-cock  may  be  seen  leading  his  populous  harem  a-field  in  quest  of  the 
usual  breakfast  of  crickets  and  grasshoppers,  and  pausing  at  brief  intervals  in 
his  stately  strut  to  spread  his  bronze  fan,  distend  his  red  wattles  in  rising 
anger,  and  gobble  defiance  at  the  puffing  locomotive.  On  speeds  the  train  past 
Sanborn,  Lake  Eckelson — whose  seven  miles  of  glassy  surface,  glistening  in 
the  morning  sun,  bespeak  the  celebrated  resort  that  it  is  for  geese  and  water- 
fowl, and  for  the  fowler  as  well — and  Spiritwood,  to  Jamestown,  nestling  in  the 
valley  of  which  it  is  the  sprightly  namesake. 

Breakfast  was  announced  almost  immediately  upon  our  leaving  Jamestown, 
and  just  as  we  had  begun  to  climb  the  grass-carpeted  hill-sides  overlooking 
the  valley  we  were  leaving  behind,  and  leading  to  the  rolling  "Coteaus" 
beyond. 

Often  as  I  had  gazed  admiringly  upon  this  same  charming  picture  of  winding 
bluffs,  meandering  river,  and  red-walled  city,  I  made  no  effort,  in  spite  of  the 
urgent  demands  of  a  robust  appetite,  to  resist  the  impulse  that  prompted  me  to 
step  out  upon  the  car  platform  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  summer  landscape, 
and  drink  in,  the  while,  deep  draughts  of  the  morning  air,  redolent  of  the 
perfume  of  wild  roses  and  not  yet  heated  oppressively  by  the  scorching  rays  of 
a  July  sun.  The  view  is  all  too  soon  obstructed  by  intervening  swells,  and  I 
repair  to  the  "diner"  and  to  the  discussion  of  a  breakfast  excellent  in  quality 
and  cookery,  and  admirably  served. 

Breakfast  finished,  I  strolled  forward  to  the  smoking-car,  and  among  other 
things  enjoyed  a  mild  cigar  and  a  highly  entertaining  joint  debate  between 
two  gentlemen  touching  the  desirability  (aside  from  the  secondary  question  of 
propriety)  of  so  amending  the  alleged  Rules  of  the  National  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives as  to  embrace  what  used  to  be  known  and  highly  commended  in  the 
more  select  circles  of  upper  tendom  as  the  Rules  of  the  London  Prize  Ring; 
but  which  the  aestheticism  of  more  recent  years  has  regilded,  newly  decorated, 
and  introduced  to  public  favor  under  the  firm  name  and  style  of  the  Delsarte 
System  of  Physical  Culture. 


A    RAMBLE    IN    WONDERLAND.  57 

I  very  soon  became  convinced  that  the  eloquent  debaters  were  partisan 
adherents  of  political  parties  differing  to  some  extent  in  theories  of  civil 
government  and  public  plunder,  and  that  they  were,  withal,  pretty  well  read  in 
the  administration  of  public  affairs,  both  antecedent  and  current.  It  likewise 
became  apparent  that  the  discussion  grew  out  of  the  exhibitory  entertainment 
given  Ly  the  company  of  which  the  gentleman  from  Texas,  Mr.  Kilgore, 
appeared  in  the  role  of  leading  man  (or,  strictly  speaking,  perhaps,  one  of  the 
leading  men)  ;  I  refer  to  the  star  engagement  played  under  the  auspices  of 
the  Fifty- first  Congress,  of  which  latter  aggregation  one  T.  Brackett  Reed,  I 
am  informed,  enjoyed  a  fair  measure  of  success  as  the  proprietor  and  manager. 

I  remembered  to  have  seen  sundry  caustic  editorial  critiques  touching  the 
performance  in  question,  which  enabled  me  to  better  comprehend  the  subject- 
matter  of  the  present  discussion,  and  appreciate  the  forceful  arguments  pre- 
sented. 

So  deeply  interested  had  I  become,  in  fact,  that  I  had  not  noticed  that  the 
train  had  passed  Dawson  and  Steele,  in  Kidder  County,  and  was  at  the  moment 
drawing  up  to  the  platform  in  Bismarck.  I  was  only  too  glad,  however,  of  even 
a  ten-minute  opportunity  for  walking  and  open  air  exercise,  and  felt  inclined  to 
protest  mildly  when  the  courteous  conductor  called  "  All  aboard!  "  Consoling 
myself  with  the  reflection  that  Mandan  was  but  five  miles  west,  and  that  point 
being  the  end  of  the  Dakota  Division  of  the  road,  we  should  probably  make  a 
fifteen  or  twenty-minute  stop  there,  I  stepped  upon  the  rear  platform  of  the 
train  in  order  to  get  a  good  view  of  the  great  bridge  and  greater  river  flowing 
far  beneath. 

We  arrived  at  Mandan  at  10.40,  and  I  at  once  set  my  time-piece  back  to 
9.40,  as  the  change  from  "  Central  "  to  "  Mountain  "  time  occurs  here  —  the 
latter  being,  as  a  matter  of  course,  one  hour  slower  than  the  former.  This 
done,  I  joined  the  strollers  about  the  platform;  and  as  I  scarce  ever  pass  Man- 
dan  without  spending  a  few  minutes  in  looking  over  the  Indian  relics  and  speci- 
mens—really fine  ones  —  of  the  taxidermist's  art  and  skill  exhibited  in  a 
small  curio-shop  at  one  end  of  the  depot  platform,  I  made  this  visit  no  excep- 
tion to  the  rule. 

When  at  length,  after  the  usual  stop,  the  heavy  train  again  got  under  head- 
way, we  were  rapidly  whirled  up  the  valleys  of  the  Heart,  the  Sweet  Briar,  and 
the  Curlew;  across  the  Little  Missouri;  on  past  Sentinel  Butte,  whose  flat  sum- 
mit  still  shows  traces  of  rifle-pits  and  breastworks  hastily  constructed  by  the 
lamented  Custer  and  his  Seventh  Cavalry  troopers  when  surrounded  and  beset 
by  the  crafty  Sioux  in  the  early 'yo's;  through  the  weirdly  grotesque  Bad  Lands, 
reaching  the  historic  Yellowstone  Valley,  at  Glendive,  just  as  the  great  red  disk 
of  the  midsummer  sun  is  slowly  sinking  behind  the  gilded  battlements  of  Iron 
Butte  — seemingly  reluctant  to  relinquish  even  a  hemisphere  to  the  sombre  and 
cooling  shades  of  night. 


58  A    RAMBLE    IN    WONDERLAND. 

I  had,  soon  after  leaving  Mandan,  secured  a  desirable  sleeper-berth,  and 
after  luncheon  had  availed  myself  of  its  comforts  for  a  two- hours'  nap  so  that 
as  the  train  wound  its  rapid  course  up  the  bluff-margined  Valley  of  the  Yellow- 
stone, and  the  rising  moon  —  nearly  at  its  full  —  began  to  light  up  the  shadowy 
buttes,  I  felt  no  inclination  to  retire  to  rest;  preferring  rather  to  kindle  the  an- 
terior end  of  a  cheroot  and  gaze  out  in  meditative  thought  upon  a  landscape 
endeared  to  me  by  long  and  intimate  acquaintance,  and  among  whose  cedar- 
clad  buttes  and  darksome  ravines  I  had  in  days  gone  by  successfully  stalked 
the  black-tailed  deer,  the  antelope,  and  the  big-horn. 

Those  were  indeed  joyous  days;  particularly  that  one  on  which  I  followed 
for  long,  weary  hours  the  snowy  trail  of  an  estray  horse  that  a  party  of  hunters, 
of  which  I  was  a  member,  needed  very  much  at  the  moment,  but  didn't  recover 
for  half  a  day,  in  spite  of  wishing  and —  equally  efficacious  diversions. 

Thus  meditating,  the  train  had  sped  past  the  outlets  of  the  Cedar,  the  Cab- 
in, and  O'Fallon  creeks  — one  and  all  traversing  capital  hunting  grounds — and 
was  rumbling  over  the  bridge  at  the  Powder  River  Crossing  at  9.10  p.  M.,  ere  I 
began  to  realize  the  flight  of  time. 

On  the  right  flowed  the  Yellowstone,  long  reaches  of  its  moonlit  surface  at 
times  gleaming  out  from  amid  bordering  trees  with  wavy,  tremulous  reflection 
of  silvery  rays.  On  the  left  and  south  a  rolling  plain  stretched  away  toward 
the  Powder  River  Range  and  its  game-haunted  fastnesses.  Miles  City,  at  the 
confluence  of  the  Tongue  and  Yellowstone  rivers,  is  reached  at  a  quarter  after 
10,  and  Fort  Keogh  —  three  miles  beyond  —  a  few  minutes  later. 

The  railway  hugs  the  south  bank  of  the  Yellowstone  all  the  way  from  Glen- 
dive  to  Billings —  225  miles;  the  north  bank  from  the  latter  point  to  Reedpoint 
—  forty-two  miles;  and  again  the  south  bank  to  Livingston  — fifty-seven  miles. 
Of  the  lower  valley,  Glendive  and  Miles  City  are  the  important  towns  — each 
having  a  population  of  1,500  or  upward,  and  being  the  county  seats  of  Dawson 
and  Custer  counties,  respectively.  Each  is  the  banking,  business,  and  shipping 
center  for  a  large  area  of  cattle  and  sheep  country;  and  the  former  is  the  end 
of  the  Missouri  Division  and  beginning-point  of  the  Yellowstone  Division  of 
the  Northern  Pacific.  Billings  and  Livingston  are  the  correspondingly  impor- 
tant towns  of  the  upper  half  of  the  main  Valley  of  the  Yellowstone,  Livingston 
being  the  junction  of  the  Yellowstone  and  Montana  divisions  of  the  road.  Bill- 
ings is  the  county  seat  of  Yellowstone  County,  and  a  well-built  tuwn  of  2,000 
population.  It  enjoys  electric-lights,  water- works, excellent  schools  and  churches, 
and  has  commodious  hotels,  substantial  banks,  a  2oo-barrel  flouring  mill, 
brick-yards,  daily  newspapers,  a  plant  for  scouring  and  pressing  wool,  etc. 
About  100,000  acres  of  land  in  the  vicinity  are  rendered  productive  by  a  thor- 
ough and  well-arranged  system  of  irrigating  ditches.  Large  shipments  of  wool, 
grain,  flour,  building-stone,  cattle,  sheep,  and  horses  are  made  from  Billings; 
and  the  city  is  connected  with  the  Maginnis  mining  district  by  daily  stages. 


A  KAMI;:  i.   IN   W<>M>F.RI.ANI>.  ill 

Seventeen  miles  beyond,  at  Laurel  Junction,  a  branch  road  (the  Rocky  Fork  & 
Cooke  City  Branch)  leaves  the  main  line  and  runs  sixty-one  miles  to  Red 
Lodge,  Mont.,  a  coal  and  mining  region  of  considerable  celebrity. 

Livingston  is  situated  at  the  extreme  head  of  the  main  valley —  116  miles 
west  of  Billings  —  and  is  the  capital  of  Park  County.  The  Northern  Pacific 
effects  its  third  and  final  crossing  of  the  Yellowstone  River  near  the  city.  It 
is  naturally  and  charmingly  located  in  an  amphitheatre  of  noble  mountains, 
whose  snowy  peaks  very  sensibly  temper  the  atmosphere  of  summer;  and  its 
people,  some  2,800  in  number,  are  among  the  most  energetic  and  progressive 
of  Montana.  A  branch  of  the  Northern  Pacific  extends  south  from  this  point 
to  Cinnabar  —  fifty-one  miles  distant  —  at  the  northern  boundary  of  Yellow- 
stone National  Park;  and  a  line  also  runs  to  Cokedale,  whose  numerous 
"ovens"  daily  turn  out  large  quantities  of  excellent  coke.  Connection  by 
stage  may  also  here  be  had  with  the  Castle  Mountain  and  Neihart  mining 
districts. 

We  were  just  crossing  the  Yellowstone  at  Reedpoint  when  I  awoke  at  6.35 
next  morning,  and  I  was  still  enjoying  a  taste  of  mountain  trout  and  the  luxu- 
ries of  the  breakfast-table  as  the  train  drew  up  at  the  station  at  Springdale, 
where  a  dozen  or  more  sufferers  from  rheumatism,  bound  for  the  near-by 
Hunter's  Hot  Springs,  took  a  painful  departure.  To  partially  make  up  for 
this  depletion  of  our  passenger-list,  four  gentlemen  and  three  ladies  boarded 
the  train.  I  felt  quite  certain  that  they  had  been  visitors  of  the  noted  health- 
resort,  and  being  desirous  of  learning  their  opinion  of  the  efficacy  of  the  waters 
of  these  much-talked-about  springs,  I  sought  an  interview  with  one  of  the 
gentlemen  of  the  party,  and  learned  that  they  had  spent  a  month  at  the 
springs,  and  were  now  on  their  way  to  the  Park.  "To  be  sure/  said  my 
informant,  "  none  of  our  party  was  helpless,  as  many  are  who  visit  the  springs, 
but  we  all  had  suffered  considerably  from  rheumatism  and  one  or  two  of  us 
from  kidney  trouble.  We  had  regularly  bathed  in  and  drank  of  the  hot 
mineral  water  for  a  week  or  such  a  matter  before  feeling  its  effects  in  a  decided 
way,  but  from  that  on  improvement  was  very  marked  and  unmistakable.  My 
wife  and  I  have  spent  three  winters  at  the  springs  in  Arkansas;  and,  judging 
from  experience  and  observation,  I  have  no  hesitancy  in  giving  it  as  my 
opinion  that  the  waters  of  Hunter's  Hot  Springs  are  fully  as  remedial  in  their 
effect  upon  persons  afflicted  with  rheumatic  disorders  as  those  of  Arkansas. 
At  all  events,  we  feel  so  much  more  vigorous  than  we  did  when  we  arrived 
here  that  we  purpose  doing  the  wonders  of  the  National  Park  and  making  a 
visit  to  the  Pacific  Coast  before  returning  to  Pennsylvania." 

The  morning  air  was  delightfully  and  refreshingly  cool  as  we  sped  on  up  the 
narrowing  valley,  in  plain  sight  of  the  white  peaks  of  the  Crazy  Mountains  on 
the  right  and  the  Snowy  Range  on  the  left  hand.  Small  fields  of  grain,  millet, 
alfalfa,  and  flower  and  vegetable  gardens  began  chasing  one  another  down  the 


62  A    RAMBLE    IN    WONDERLAND. 

valley  as  we  bowled  onward;  and  thickets  of  water-willow  and  groves  of  greet! 
pines  gave  tone  to  a  landscape  already  beginning  to  assume  the  russet  garb  of 
autumn. 

We  rolled  into  Livingston  "  on  time  "  at  precisely  8  o'clock,  and  I  was  sur- 
prised to  note  that  fifty-nine  passengers  boarded  the  Park  Branch  train  in  wait- 
ing. I  concluded  that  the  marvelous  precincts  of  the  national  play-ground  were 
about  to  be  invaded  by  an  excursion  party  of  possibly  some  educational  or 
denominational  stripe;  but  the  matter-of-fact  conductor,  to  whom  I  mentioned 
this  hypothesis,  looked  at  me  a  moment  in  a  curious  sort  of  way,  and  said: 
"  Perhaps  you  have  an  idea  that  few  people  visit  the  Park;  I  can  assure  you,  sir, 
that  this  season's  guests  will  run  well  up  to  7,000,  and  every  season  adds  to 
the  popularity  of  the  great  "  Geyserland."  I  thanked  the  genial  official  for  the 
information  imparted,  apologized  for  my  error  of  judgment,  and  tossing  my 
^ggage  into  the  baggage-room,  prepared  to  await  the  arrival  of  Mr.  Haynes 
and  his  studio-car.  Naturally,  I  made  a  prompt  call  upon  the  "  boys  "  upstairs 
in  the  superintendent's  office,  and  learned  that  trout  were  reported  as  biting  in 
a  lively  manner  in  the  Upper  Yellowstone,  along  the  Park  Branch.  This 
information,  and  the  realization  that  I  could  probably  enjoy  three  or  four  hours' 
fishing  between  the  up  and  down  trips  of  the  Park  train,  instantly  decided  me 
to  go  to  Daileys  —  thirty-one  miles  south;  and  the  resolution  was  formed 
none  to  soon,  as  I  had  barely  time  to  get  my  "  outfit  "  together  and  board  the 
train,  just  on  the  point  of  starting  for  Cinnabar. 

The  sequel  proved  that  if  I  had  been  just  a  little  less  prompt  in  "calling  on 
the  boys,"  and  a  trifle  less  eager  to  profit  by  the  gossip  of  Dame  Rumor,  I 
should  have  escaped  a  tiresome  tramp,  an  exasperating  recollection  of  past 
successes  in  the  same  waters,  and  a  badly  sun-burned  neck  and  face. 

Probably  the  blazing  glare  of  the  noon-day  sun  contributed  somewhat  to  my 
ill-success;  at  all  events,  I  landed  but  seventeen  trout  —  the  largest  not  above 
three-quarters  of  a  pound  in  weight.  I  have  ever  regarded  Yellowstone  River, 
from  its  source  to  mouth  —  pretty  nearly  —  as  one  of  the  finest  trouting- 
streams  (all  things  considered)  of  the  American  Continent.  Its  waters  are 
clear,  sparkling,  and  cold;  it  is  easily  and  safely  waded,  just  about  rapid 
enough,  has  clean,  rocky  banks  and  pebbly  margin,  and  I  have  never,  except 
on  this  one  occasion,  failed  of  finding  its  large,  gamy  trout  rapacious  biters.  I 
usually  fish  with  three  flies,  properly  adjusted  on  a  six-foot  "  leader,"  and  have 
often  hooked  three  fish  at  a  cast  among  the  rapids  near  Daileys.  Generally 
speaking,  excellent  sport  with  the  rod  may  be  had  at  almost  any  point  along 
the  Yellowstone  and  its  affluent  streams,  from  Livingston  to  and  throughout 
the  National  Park. 

I  had  wearied  of  "whipping"  rapid  after  rapid  without  getting  a  "strike," 
and  had  already  been  half  an  hour  in  waiting  at  the  little  station  when  the  down 
train  arrived. 


A    RAMBLE   IN    \vu\  DKRLAND.  fi3 

The  average  man  would  not  require  to  be  long  domiciled  in  the  luxurious 
traveling-studio  of  the  Northern  Pacific's  landscape  artist  in  order  to  forget 
even  the  keenest  disappointment;  and  when  I  reflected  tha  least  had 

enough  trout  for  breakfast,  I  felt  disposed  to  yield  myself  a  willing  slave  to 
the  consoling  influences  that  surrounded  me. 

As  the  greater  part  of  our  work,  both  photographic  and  inquisitorial,  lay 
beyond  the  Cascades,  Mr.  Haynes,  upon  our  arrival  in  Livingston  at  6  o'clock, 
obtained  the  necessary  order  to  have  his  car  attached  to  the  Pacific  Express 
due  about  two  and  a  quarter  hours  later,  with  the  intention  of  proceeding  direct 
to  Tacoma  and  making  that  point  our  base  of  operations  while  on  the  coast. 
A  delightful  evening  succeeded  the  warm  day,  but  I  was  quite  too  weary  to 
appreciate  its  charms,  or  find  pleasure  in  anything  but  sleep.  Accordingly,  as 
soon  as  our  car  had  been  attached  to  the  west-bound  train  and  we  were  once 
more  well  under  way,  I  retired  to  the  quietude  of  the  airy  state-room  that  had 
been  assigned  me,  and  addressed  myself  to  rest  and  slumber. 

When  I  awoke  next  morning  we  were  speeding  down  the  Clark  Fork  of 
the  Columbia,  having  passed  Bozeman  and  Helena  in  the  night,  and  Missoula 
early  in  the  morning,  ere  I  had  become  conscious  of  the  dawning  of  another 
day.  I  confess  to  feeling  a  trifle  the  worse  for  wear,  a  condition  by  no  means 
so  novel  or  so  serious,  however,  as  to  occasion  more  than  passing  mention,  and 
soon  to  be  forgotten  altogether  in  contemplation  of  the  grand  scenery  through 
which  we  were  wending  our  rapid  way. 

To  the  south  and  west  lay  the  lofty  Bitter  Root  Mountains — close  at  hand, 
the  Clark  Fork  dashing  along  their  base,  its  northerly  bank  hugged  by  the  rail- 
road. To  the  north  and  east  extended  the  high,  rolling  divide  that  separates 
the  immediate  valley  of  the  Clark  Fork  from  the  wide  and  fertile  basin  of  the 
Flathead  Lake  region.  Upon  these  swelling,  grassy  hill-sides  bands  of  horses 
and  cattle  could  be  seen  grazing,  while  in  the  deep  valley  through  which  lay 
our  sinuous  path  of  steel,  crops  not  already  garnered  stood  ripening  in  the 
summer  sun.  The  vast  expanse  of  dark  forest  that  clothed  the  bold  mountain- 
spur  from  base  to  summit  here  and  there  showed  the  destructive  effects  of  fire, 
and  presented  a  landscape  sublime  of  outline  and  marvelously  grand  in  detail; 
of  beetling  crags  and  yawning  chasms,  of  rock-slides,  and  angry,  foaming  cata- 
racts, such  as  only  a  great  mountain-chain  vouchsafes  to  man's  all  too  often 
unappreciative  gaze.  Such  proved  to  be  the  character  of  the  country  through 
which  we  traveled  the  livelong  day;  halting  at  Hope,  Idaho,  for  a  brief  space 
— just  long  enough  to  permit  every  passenger  to  become  enamored  of  beauti- 
ful Lake  Pend  d'Oreille,  its  emerald  isles  and  picturesque  surroundings,  and 
reaching  at  eventide  that  marvel  of  Eastern  Washington  enterprise — Spokane 
(SpO-kSn'). 

At  Marshall  Junction — nine  miles  beyond — the  Spokane  &  Palouse  Branch 


04  A    feAMBLE    IN*    \Vo\ni.KI.ANB. 

of  the  Northern  Pacific  leaves  the  main  line  and  runs  south  115  miles,  through 
the  famed  "  Palouse  Country,"  to  Julietta,  Idaho. 

The  evening  proved  cloudy,  even  threatening  rain;  and  by  the  time  the 
train  had  reached  Sprague — forty-one  miles  west  of  Spokane — the  fast-gath- 
ering darkness  rendered  landscape  observation  so  nearly  impossible  that  I 
once  more  repaired  to  my  electric-lighted  state-room,  and  after  consigning  a 
few  data  and  statistics  to  my  note-book,  again  sought  rest  and  forgetfulness  in 
refreshing  sleep. 

I  was  up  betimes  next  morning,  and  making  a  hasty  toilet  as  noiselessly  as 
possible,  so  as  not  to  disturb  the  other  occupants  of  the  car,  whose  somewhat 
audible  breathing  (?)  indicated  that  they  were  still  roaming  in  dreamland,  I 
betook  myself  to  the  rear  platform,  camp-stool  in  hand,  and  lighting  a  cigar 
and  tilting  my  heels  upon  the  platform  railing,  prepared  to  enjoy  such  glimpses 
as  were  to  be  now  and  then  caught  through  the  dense  forest-growth  of  the 
wild  scenery  round  about — and,  I  might  say  with  equal  propriety,  above  and 
below.  We  were  slowly  climbing  the  eastern  slope  of  the  Cascades,  and  the 
view  was  wild  and  grand.  Now  the  winding  track  clings  to  the  rocky  walls  of 
a  dizzy  cliff,  and  I  am  permitted  to  gaze  down  into  a  chasm  whose  depth  I  wot 
not  of,  while  my  hair  involuntarily  assumes  an  erect  attitude  and  my  trembling 
eyelids  close  upon  the  sight.  Suddenly,  two  giant  locomotives — a  double- 
header — dash  around  a  curve  a  few  rods  in  our  rear.  Springing  to  my  feet 
and  gazing  upward  toward  the  blue  sky,  whither  I  expect  momentarily  to  be 
wending  my  unceremonious  way,  I  prepare  to  jump  for  life,  when,  fortunately 
I  discover  that  the  monster  locomotives  are  part  and  parcel  of  our  own  train 
that  have  just  turned  a  u  corner  "  and  are  pursuing  a  legitimate  right-of-way. 
Pretty  soon  I  become  accustomed  to  these  startling  surprises,  and  when,  by 
and  by,  the  head  engineer  looks  down  from  a  height  of  fifty  feet  almost 
straight  up  above  me  and  smilingly  nods  a  morning  recognition,  I  return  the 
smile  and  toss  him  a  Flor  de  Cubana  with  the  nonchalance  of  a  veteran  in  the 
business. 

At  last  we  reach  the  great  tunnel  under  "  Stampede  Pass,"  and  slowly 
enter  its  arching  doorway,  hewn  out  of  the  solid  rock.  The  interior  is  lighted 
by  incandescent  electric-lamps  attached  to  either  wall  at  intervals  of  a  few  feet, 
and  as  we  slowly  proceed,  I  catch  glimpses  of  the  upturned  faces  of  the  track- 
walkers and  tunnel-crew,  for  whom  this  marvel  of  engineering  skill — nearly 
two  miles  in  length,  and  the  second  longest  tunnel  in  the  United  States — is  an 
unremitting  care. 

Now  our  car  tips  slightly,  but  surely,  forward,  our  speed  begins  to  increase, 
and  we  know  that  we  have  crossed  the  Cascades  and  are  descending  the  forest- 
clad  slope  that  extends  even  down  to  the  far-resounding  shores  of  the  Western 
Ocean.  We  reach  the  base  of  the  mountains  proper  at  Weston — twin  sister  of 
Easton  just  across  the  range — and  frequent  glimpses  of  dashing  Green  River, 


SNOQUALMIE    FALLS,   WASHINGTON. 


A    RAMBLE    IN    WONDERLAND. 


67 


along  which  our  way  winds,  instantly  suggests  the  thought  of  rod  and  flies, 
and  I  promise  myself  that  I  will  explore  its  rapids,  pools,  and  rocky  glens  on 
the  homeward  journey,  come  what  will. 

A  cheery  sun  was  fast  dispelling  the  morning  mists  that  hovered  about  the 
head  of  Commencement  Bay  as  we  drew  out  of  a  skirting  belt  of  pines  and 
began  to  cross  the  long  trestle  leading  to  the  charming  city  that,  like  ancient 
Rome,  sits  upon  its  seven  hills,  and  looks  down  in  majestic  grandeur  upon  the 
rest  of  the  world. 

Here,  speaking  with  exactness,  our  roving  outing  actually  began  ;  but  what 
we  did  and  what  we  saw  during  our  coastwise  sojourn  will  be  made  the  theme 
of  another  chapter. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

LOOKING  Ar.ori  T.UOMA — ITS  FINE  HARBOR — GROWING  COMMERCE — 
MANUFACTURES — DELIGHTFUL  HOMES — MOUNT  TACOMA — JOURNEY 
TO  PORTLAND — VALLEYS  OF  THE  CHEHALIS,  WILLAPA  AND  COWLITZ 
—TOWNS  BY  THE  WAY — VISIT  TO  BIG  TREES  — PRAIRIES  ALONG  THE 
COWLITZ — PRODUCTIONS — CROSSING  THE  COLUMBIA — CITY  OF  PORT- 
LAND— PUGET  SOUND  HOP  REGION— VISIT  TO  MEEKER  "  YARDS," 
NEAR  KENT — HOP  GROWING — ARRIVAL  AT  SEATTLE — VIEWING  THE 
CITY — ITS  EXCELLENT  HARBOR — COMMERCIAL  AND  MANUFACTURING 
IMPORTANCE — SUBURBAN  LAKES — VISIT  TO  SNOQUALMIE  FALLS — 
ANACORTES — SEDRO — NORTHERN  PACIFIC  CONNECTIONS  WITH  OTHER 
CITIES — CONNECTIONS  WITH  VICTORIA  AND  POINTS  IN  ALASKA. 

URING  our  westward  journey  we  had,  with  prompt  regularity, 
patronized  the  well-supplied  tables  of  one  of  the  best-equipped 
and  best-officered  dining-cars  it  has  ever  been  my  good  fortune 
to  enter,  even  upon  the  line  of  the  Northern  Pacific,  whose 
present  management  seems  to  derive  pleasure  from  providing 
everything  in  the  way  of  train-service  that  can  in  any  way 
conduce  to  the  comfort  or  convenience  of  its  patrons. 

We  had  done  this  as  a  matter  of  choice  merely,  as  the  traveling-studio 
which  we  called  home  and  business-office  as  well,  was  furnished  with  all  the 
conveniences  for  preparing  and  serving  meals  that  a  French  chef  might  desire. 
We  also  had  with  us  a  gentleman  of  color  to  perform  the  dual  service  of  cook 
and  porter,  so  that  we  had  but  to  lay  in  a  supply  of  ice  and  provisions  in 
order  to  be  ready  for  pretty  nearly  any  emergency  in  that  line. 

While  the  necessary  preparations  incident  to  our  proposed  roving  camp-out 
were  being  attended  to,  I  took  advantage  of  the  opportunity  afforded  to  look 
about  Tacoma  a  bit,  and  investigate  more  fully  some  among  the  many  appar- 
ent evidences  of  the  city's  growth  since  I  had  last  strolled  about  its  streets, 
and  climbed  its  hill-sides. 

I  fear  that  as  age  advances,  I  am  becoming  a  trifle  odd  in  my  likes  and 
dislikes,  at  least  in  respect  to  the  early  stages  of  development  of  pretty  nearly 

(68) 


A    RAMBLE    IN    WONDERLAND.  60 

every  Western  town  of  my  acquaintance  ;  for  I  never  observe  any  considerable 
number  of  persons  rushing  about  with  real-estate  plats  in  their  hands,  and 
surveyor's  chains  hanging  out  of  their  coat-tail  pockets,  without  sooner  or  later 
being  overcome  by  a  feeling  of  unutterable  weariness.  My  former  \isit  to  this 
surprising  young  city  of  the  many-harbored  Pacific  Sound  was  full  of  experi- 
ences of  this  kind,  and  I  felt  out  of  place  in  the  atmosphere  of  general  bustle 
that  said,  in  omnipresent  letters  of  prophetic  import,  "  If  you  want  to  be  happy, 
buy  a  lot  in  Tacoma." 

Philosophers  who  have  carefully  and  thoughtfully  observed  the  general  and 
indiscriminating  scramble  for  wealth  and  quick  fortune-making  characteristic 
of  the  American  people,  express  the  opinion  that  "town-booming"  is  a  disease 
as  natural  to  the  great  new  West  as  measles  is  to  the  period  of  adolescence,  or 
ingenuity  .to  the  New  England  Yankee;  and  although  a  very  little  of  what 
passes  current  as  philosophy  in  this  day  and  generation  goes  a  long  way,  gen- 
erally, in  supplying  the  needs  of  such  a  robust  constitution  as  I  am,  fortunately, 
blessed  with,  yet  in  this  instance  I  am  inclined  to  accept  the  opinion  handed 
down  as  sound,  and  founded  both  upon  good  law  and  common  experience. 

But  to  return  to  my  text,  I  soon  discovered,  in  my  ramble  among  the  hills 
and  homes,  mills  and  market-places,  business  streets  and  business  palaces,  the 
busy  wharves  and  busier  wharfingers  of  this  bright,  bustling,  airy  city,  on  this 
balmy  morning  of  the  early  dog-days,  that  the  Tacoma  of  my  former  visit  had 
outgrown  the  swaddling-clothes  and  colicky  demonstrativeness  of  a  somewhat 
troublesome  infancy,  and  developed  a  material  growth  in  the  direction  of 
commerce  and  manufactures  that  can  not,  in  the  very  nature  of  things,  fail  of 
making  it  some  day  a  great  metropolis,  in  spite  of  any  possible  temporary  mis- 
fortune or  set-back  that  may  overtake  it.  It  already  has  a  banking  capital  of 
$7,000,000;  does  an  annual  wholesale  trade  of  $10,000,000;  has  twenty  hotels 
— one  costing  $250,000;  a  $150,000  opera-house,  thirty  church  edifices,  seven 
public-school  buildings,  three  daily  and  several  weekly  newspapers,  two  hospi- 
tal buildings,  a  chamber  of  commerce,  a  seminary,  college,  and  university,  an 
assessed  valuation  of  $20,000,000,  a  population  of  about  40,000,  and  the  largest 
saw-mill  in  the  world.  It  annually  converts  half  a  billion  feet  of  logs  into 
building  material;  manufactures  flour,  soap,  oatmeal,  crackers,  furniture, 
boxes,  cornices,  steam-boilers,  stoves,  cement,  gas,  electricity  for  lighting  and 
supplying  power,  brooms,  tiles,  terra  cotta  bricks  and  ornamental  decorations, 
beer,  trunks,  cars,  carriages,  and  railway  machinery;  has  five  iron-foundries, 
ship-yards,  grain  warehouses,  cold  storage  and  commission  houses,  a  smelter 
capable  of  reducing  100  tons  of  ore  daily,  a  system  of  wharves  two  and  one- 
half  miles  in  length,  coal-bunkers  constructed  at  an  outlay  of  $150,000,  len 
miles  of  electric  street  railways,  and  thirty  miles  more  of  city  and  suburban 
lines  under  construction;  an  excellent  system  of  water  works,  and  an  already 
very  large  export  and  import  trade;  and  is  the  entrepot  for  a  very  large  and 


70  A    RAMBLE    IN    WONDERLAND. 

constantly  increasing  share  of  the  trade  of  China  and  Japan  that  finds  its  way 
to  American  shores.  It  is  the  sound  terminus  of  the  Northern  Pacific  System, 
and  of  the  various  steamship  companies  whose  ocean-rovers  ply  Pacific  waters 
to  and  from  California,  British  Columbia  and  Alaska.  It  sits  at  the  head  of 
Commencement  Bay — the  southeasternmost  harbor  of  Puget  Sound — and  is 
ninety-eight  miles  by  water-road  to  the  open  ocean  at  the  outlet  of  the  Strait 
of  Fuca,  and  forty  miles  from  the  Pacific  as  the  crow  flies. 

The  foregoing  data  and  statistics,  in  part  culled  from  the  very  excellent 
press  of  Tacoma  and  in  part  obtained  from  official  sources,  will,  it  is  assumed, 
carry  with  them  the  conviction  that  the  assertions  of  opinion  herein  contained 
touching  the  proud  eminence  of  commercial  greatness  and  power  that  destiny 
has  marked  out  for  this  young  empire  city  of  the  Pacific  Northwest,  are  not 
the  mere  vaporings  of  a  too  vivid  imagination,  nor  the  paid  advertisement  of 
real-estate  speculators. 

But  I  should  be  recreant  to  duty  were  I  to  neglect  to  mention  the  pleasure 
I  experienced,  after  wearily  climbing  its  roundest,  steepest  hill,  in  finding 
myself  surrounded  by  delightful  homes,  beautiful  in  architectural  design,  and 
sufficiently  retired  from  the  curb  of  broad  avenues,  pleasant  drives,  and  sightly 
promenades  to  admit  of  fresh,  green  frontage  borders  of  well-kept  lawn;  of 
shrubbery  and  beds  of  velvety  pansies;  blossoming  rose-buds  and  sweet-smelling 
mignonette — homes  indicative  not  so  much  of  the  lavish  hand  of  wealth  as  of 
cultured  taste  and  refined  domesticity;  of  sweet  content  and  smiling  infancy; 
of  healthful  rest  and  sweet  repose  such  as  weary  pilgrims  need. 

Charming  as  was  and  is  the  picturesque  beauty  of  this  Palatine  Hill  of  a 
newer  and  brighter  Rome,  my  eyes  would  stray  to  the  rippling,  sapphire-tinted 
bosom  of  the  bay  at  my  feet;  to  the  fir-clad  mountain-slopes  stretching  beyond, 
and  to  the  great,  white,  sepulchral  dome  that  ever  and  anon  appeared  to  view 
from  out  the  filmy  mists  that  veiled  its  icy  brow — cold-looking,  majestic,  grand. 

Of  this  same  scene,  mayhap,  at  least  of  the  snowy  Cascades  and  Mount 
Tacoma,  wrote — more  than  a  quarter-century  since — Theodore  Winthrop,  poet, 
novelist,  soldier — military  secretary  to  General  Butler,  and  numbered  among 
the  martyrs  of  Big  Bethel: 

The  range  continues  dark  and  rough,  and  sometimes  unmeaning  to  the  eye, 
until  it  is  relieved  by  Tacoma — vulgo  Regnier.  *  *  *  Kingly  and  alone 
stood  this  majesty,  without  any  visible  comrade  or  consort,  though  far  to  the 
north  and  south  its  brethren  and  sisters  dominated  their  realms,  each  in  isolated 
sovereignty,  rising  above  the  pine-darkened  sierra  of  the  Cascade  Mountains; 
above  the  stern  chasm  where  the  Columbia — Achilles  of  rivers — sweeps,  short- 
lived and  jubilant,  to  the  sea;  above  the  lovely  vales  of  the  Willamette  and 
Umpqua.  Of  all  the  peaks  from  California  to  Fraser  River,  this  one  before 
me  was  royalest.  Mount  Regnier,  Christians  have  dubbed  it,  in  stupid  nomen- 
clature, perpetuating  the  name  of  somebody  or  nobody.  More  melodiously, 
the  Siwashes  call  it  Tacoma.  *  *  * 


A    RAMBLE    IN    WONDERLAND.  71 

No  foot  of  man  had  ever  trampled  those  pure  snows.  It  was  a  virginal 
mountain,  distant  from  the  possibility  of  human  approach  and  human  inquisi- 
tiveness  as  a  marble  goddess  is  from  human  loves.  Yet  there  was  nothing  un- 
sympathetic in  its  isolation,  or  despotic  in  its  distant  majesty.  But  this  serene 
loftiness  was  no  home  for  any  deity  of  those  that  men  create.  Only  the 
thought  of  eternal  peace  arose  from  this  .heaven-upbearing  monument,  like 
incense,  and,  overflowing,  rilled  the  world  with  deep  and  holy  calm.  Wherever 
the  mountain  turned  its  cheek  toward  the  sun,  many  fair  and  smiling  dimples 
appeared,  and  along  soft  curves  of  snow,  lines  of  shadow  drew  tracery  fair 
as  the  blue  veins  on  a  child's  temple.  Without  the  infinite  sweetness  and 
charm  of  this  kindly  changefulness  of  form  and  color,  there  might  have  been 
oppressive  awe  in  the  presence  oft  his  transcendent  glory  against  the  solemn 
blue  of  noon.  Grace  played  over  the  surface  of  majesty,  as  a  drift  of  rose-leaves 
wavers  in  the  air  before  the  grandeur  of  a  storm.  Loveliness  was  sprinkled, 
like  a  boon  of  blossoms,  upon  sublimity. 

Studying  the  light  and  the  majesty  of  Tacoma,  there  passed  from  it,  and 
entered  into  my  being — to  dwell  there  evermore,  by  the  side  of  many  such — a 
thought  and  an  image  of  solemn  beauty,  which  I  could  thenceforth  evoke 
whenever  in  the  world  I  must  have  peace,  or  die.  For  such  emotion,  years  o" 
pilgrimage  were  worthily  spent. 

Seven  thirty  A.  M.  of  August  ist  found  us  seated  at  our  initial  breakfast- 
table,  our  car  attached  to  the  Portland  Express,  just  pulling  out  of  the  Tacoma 
yards— our  coastwise  ramble  begun.  A  brief  run  brought  us  to  Lake  View 
Junction — eight  miles  south — from  which  point  the  Northern  Pacific  ha»» 
recently  constructed  a  branch  line  to  Olympia  (capital  of  the  State,  and  a  city  of 
growing  importance),  beyond  which  the  road  is  extended  to  connect  Tacoma 
and  Olympia  with  the  Centralia  &  Gray's  Harbor  Line  at  Gate  City.  At  10.05 
we  had  reached  Centralia,  fifty-two  miles  south  of  Tacoma,  and  half-way 
between  Seattle  and  Portland,  where  our  traveling  art-gallery  was  placed  upon 
a  convenient  siding  to  enable  our  artist-in-chief  to  procure  a  few  negatives  in 
the  line  of  landscape  photography,  and  our  commissary-of-subsistence  to 
reconnoiter  the  picketed  precincts  of  a  peach-orchard  and  negotiate  for  suffi- 
cient of  its  luscious  fruit — fresh  from  the  bending,  burdened  branches — to  furnish 
forth  our  table  for  a  time.  That  the  quests  of  both  were  fruitful  (literally)  of 
results  will  probably  be  accepted  by  the  reader  as  a  natural,  logical  sequence, 
without  doubt,  cavil,  or  comment. 

Between  the  Cascade  and  Coast  Range  Mountains  in  Western  Washington, 
there  extends  a  fairly  deep,  irregular  basin,  bordered  by  the  timbered  foot-hills 
of  either  range,  and  with  general  northerly  trend  from  the  wide-rolling  Colum- 
bia that  forms  its  southern  boundary  to  the  forest-shores  of  Puget  Sound. 
This  basin  is  but,  in  fact,  the  northerly  continuation  of  the  Willamette  Basin 
in  Oregon,  and  is  covered  to  a  great  extent  with  a  heavy  growth  of  choice 
timber,  though  breaking  here  and  there  into  stretches  of  beautiful  and  fertile 
prairie,  and  drained  by  a  number  of  small  streams,  each  possessing  its  own 
little  contiguous  valley  of  rich,  deep  alluvium,  and  filled  with  the  music  of 


72  A    RAMBLE    IN    WONDERLAND. 

bird-songs  and  purling  brooks.  Chief  among  these  streams  are  the  Chehalis 
(She-ha'-lls),  the  Willapa,  and  the  Cowlitz,  each  asserting-  claim  to  several 
miles  of  navigable  waters  and  boasting  valleys  of  considerable  extent  and  of 
great  fertility.  The  Chehalis  has  its  rise  in  the  southerly  portion  of  the  basin, 
and  its  clear,  shallow  waters  wind  along  the  eastern  base  of  the  Coast  Range 
in  a  northwesterly  direction,  emptying  finally  into  Gray's  Harbor — westward 
from  Olympia.  The  Willapa  (Wlll'-a-paw)  takes  its  rise  well  over  toward  the 
head-waters  of  the  Chehalis,  flows  westwardly — bisecting  the  Coast  Range — 
and  mingles  its  waters  with  those  of  the  fine  ocean-harbor  whose  name  it  bears. 
Last,  but  by  no  means  least,  either  in  length  or  drainage  area,  is  the  Cowlitz, 
whose  valley,  explored  by  Captains  Lewis  and  Clarke  at  the  beginning  of  the 
present  century,  and  subsequently  made  a  trading-station  by  the  Hudson  Bay 
Fur  Company,  has  its  beginning  away  up  among  the  snows  of  the  Cascades — 
in  fact,  all  but  unites  with  the  Valley  of  the  Nachess  (N£tch-eSz')  River  (to  the 
east  of  the  Cascades)  in  forming  what  is  known  as  the  Cowlitz  or  Nachess 
Pass  of  those  mountains.  The  Cowlitz  is  a  fairly  rapid  stream,  flowing  first 
westerly,  then  southerly,  through  a  beautiful  valley  consisting  of  an  almost 
unbroken  succession  of  natural  rolling  prairies — its  waters  finally  serving  to 
augment  the  already  mighty  volume  of  the  Columbia.  Throughout  this  basin 
runs  the  Pacific  Division  of  the  great  railroad  in  question — from  Seattle, 
Tacoma  and  Olympia,  in  Washington,  to  Oregon's  metropolis  on  the  Willa- 
mette— a  total  distance  of  some  200  miles.  In  the  central  portion  of  this 
large  mountain-basin  are  Centralia  and  Chehalis,  immediately  situate  in  the 
extensive  and  fruitful  valley  that  gave  to  the  latter  its  name. 

These,  two  thriving  young  cities  are  but  four  miles  distant  one  from  the 
other,  Chehalis  being  the  farther  south,  and  the  county  seat  of  Lewis  County, 
the  large  political  subdivision  of  the  State  in  which  both  are  situated.  Cen- 
tralia has  at  present  the  larger  population  (some  3,000),  but  each  is  growing 
steadily  and  is  rapidly  becoming  an  important  railway  center.  Already  a  newly 
built  line  of  railway  is  in  operation  by  the  Northern  Pacific  connecting  Cen- 
tralia with  the  town  of  Montesano  and  the  Gray's  Harbor  country,  and  afford- 
ing the  latter  direct  rail  connection  with  all  parts  of  the  State  and  with  the 
East,  besides  opening  for  speedy  settlement  a  fine  farming  and  timber  region 
hitherto  difficult  of  access.  Another  branch  road  is  now  under  construction 
by  the  same  company,  intended  to  open  to  settlement  a  large  area  of  forest 
and  farming  country  lying  in  the  Chehalis  and  Willapa  valleys,  and  to  give  the 
new  and  rapidly  growing  city  of  South  Bend  and  the  Willapa  Harbor  region 
in  general  direct  rail  connection  with  the  finest  and  most  extensive  railway 
system  in  the  world.  Chehalis  has  a  population  of  about  2,500,  and  like  its  sister 
city  is  surrounded  by  fruit-gardens  in  which  the  pear,  peach,  prune,  plum,  and 
apple  vie  with  one  another  in  abundance  of  yield,  and  in  size,  beauty,  and  exquisite 
flavor.  Trees  usually  begin  to  bear  at  two  years  of  age,  and  appear  to  require 


A    RAMBLE    IN    WONDERLAND.  73 

very  little  care  or  attention  further  than  the  so  adjusting  of  crops  beneath  the 
heavily  fruited  trees  during  the  bearing-season  as  to  form  supports  sufficient 
to  prevent  the  breaking  down  of  branches  and  the  ruin  that  would  in  conse- 
quence ensue.  Both  Centralia  and  Chehalis  are  largely  engaged  in  the  manu- 
facture of  lumber,  shingles,  sash,  doors,  blinds,  etc.;  each  has  excellent  schools, 
churches,  and  newspapers,  and  the  former  a  fine  seminary.  Centralia  also  has 
a  mine  of  coal,  just  beginning  to  be  developed  at  the  time  of  our  visit,  a  rail- 
way some  three  miles  in  length  having  already  been  constructed  to  the  mine, 
upon  which  sufficient  development  work  had  been  done  to  convince  the  owner 
of  its  value  and  justify  energetic  prosecution  of  the  work  begun. 

The  day  following  our  arrival  at  Centralia,  our  car  was  run  to  Chehalis  and 
preparations  were  made  for  spending  a  day  in  the  forests  of  giant  pines,  firs, 
and  cedars  along  the  line  of  the  newly  graded  railroad  leading  to  Willapa  Har- 
bor—  already  referred  to.  Early  on  the  morning  of  the  3d,  a  pair  of  mettle- 
some steeds,  attached  to  a  large  two-seated  wagon,  drew  up  at  the  door  of  our 
domicile,  or  at  least  as  near  the  door  as  the  rails  and  cross-ties  would  admit. 
We  were  just  partaking  of  a  hasty  breakfast,  but  were  soon  ready  for  the  day's 
jolting  over  the  corduroy  road  that  served  as  a  "tote"  road,  I  was  told,  to  the 
camp  of  the  railway-graders.  We  had  barely  reached  the  region  of  great  trees 
(a  journey  of  not  over  sixteen  miles)  at  10  o'clock,  and  had  experienced  the 
pleasant  sensation  of  a  cool  drive,  away  from  the  dust  and  clatter  of  busy 
streets,  amid  a  forest  of  Douglas  firs  and  an  ocean  of  nodding  wild  flowers  and 
tall,  waving  ferns.  And  here  were  the  larger  trees  of  which  we  had  heard  — 
not  nearly  so  large  as  the  giant  redwood  trees  of  California,  it  is  true,  yet 
grandly  large  in  any  ordinary  collection  of  forest  conifers.  We  measured  sev- 
eral, taking  their  girth  as  high  as  we  could  reach,  and  found  that  they  scaled 
all  the  way  from  twelve  to  thirty  feet  in  circumference  —  large  enough  for  all 
practical  purposes,  and  apparently  as  solid  and  sound  as  so  many  new  dollars. 

We  got  back  to  town  at  early  night-fall,  and  obtained  permission  to  have 
our  car  attached  to  a  passing  freight-train  that  took  us  to  Winlock,  whence  we 
took  team,  the  following  day,  for  a  visit  to  the  orchards  and  wheat-fields  of  the 
Cowlitz  Valley,  passing  through  Drew's  and  Grand  prairies  en  route.  This  en- 
tire region  is  settled  by  a  thrifty  class  of  Tennesseans  and  Western  North  Caro- 
linians, who  have  sought  homes  here  for  the  most  part  since  1884. 

We  were  picked  up  by  a  passing  express,  next  day  at  about  noon,  and 
whirled  on  to  Portland,  crossing  the  Columbia  by  embarking  upon  a  huge  rail- 
way-transfer at  Kalama  and  debarking  therefrom  at  Goble,  on  the  Oregon 
shore,  arriving  at  the  sea-port  of  the  Willamette  at  6.30.  During  the  two  fol- 
lowing days  we  viewed  the  business  and  bustle  of  Portland,  both  by  daylight 
and  electric-light,  and  did  it  enthusiastically.  The  Northern  Pacific  has  a  corps 
of  general  officers  here  who  prefix  "assistant  "  to  their  respective  titles  by  way 
of  distinction  from  St.  Paul  officials  in  like  departments.  The  road  also  enjoys 


74  A    RAMBLE    IN    WONDERLAND. 

very  satisfactory  traffic  arrangements  with  the  Southern  Pacific  Company's  cel- 
ebrated "  Shasta  Route,"  with  which  it  makes  close  connection  for  San  Fran- 
cisco and  all  points  south  along  the  coast. 

The  city  consists  of  Portland  (proper)  and  East  Portland,  and  has  a  popula- 
tion of  about  60,000.  Its  growth  and  progress  are  solidly  founded  upon  natu- 
ral advantage  of  position.  It  is  situated,  as  every  school-child  knows,  upon 
the  Willamette,  twelve  miles  above  its  confluence  with  the  Columbia,  and  its 
wharves  are  constantly  visited  by  the  ocean-rovers  of  the  world.  It  is  to  ail 
intents  and  purposes  a  sea-port  with  an  extensive  ocean  commerce.  Regular 
lines  of  passenger-steamers  ply  daily  along  the  water  highways  of  the  Willa- 
mette, Columbia,  and  tributary  rivers,  and  at  longer  intervals  to  and  from  San 
Francisco. 

The  city  is  admirably  laid  out,  and  its  limits  may  readily  be  extended  in  any 
direction  without  detriment  to  its  compactness.  Its  streets  are  wide,  well  paved, 
and  lighted  by  electricity;  its  business  structures  would  do  credit  to  any  east- 
ern city  of  thrice  its  size,  and  its  churches,  schools,  and  private  residences  are 
the  admiration  of  every  appreciative  person  who  visits  the  city. 

It  takes  a  just  pride  in  the  excellence  of  its  hotels,  in  its  public  library,  its 
theatres,  its  post-office  and  customs  buildings,  its  newspapers,  its  seven  lines  of 
street  railway  (cable,  electric  and  steam-motor),  its  system  of  pure  water-sup- 
ply, its  millions  of  banking  capital,  its  large  wholesale  and  retail  trade,  and  its 
exports  of  wheat,  wool,  hides,  lumber,  and  canned  salmon. 

August  yth  we  bade  adieu  to  this  city  of  pleasant  memories  and  again 
turned  our  faces  toward  the  "  Mediterranean  "  of  the  Pacific  —  Puget  Sound  — 
halting  not  until  our  car  was  side-tracked  among  the  green-walled  "  hop-yards" 
of  Kent  —  on  the  Northern  Pacific's  Sound  Shore  Line  between  Tacoma  and 
Seattle.  All  day  long  we  wandered  among  these  "  yards  "  of  ripening  hops, 
avenues  of  clinging,  raspy  vines,  dry-kilns,  press-sheds,  pickers'  quarters,  and 
stacked-up  "  picking-boxes,"  one  and  all  suggestive  of  the  fun  and  frolic  of 
the  "  picking-season,"  of  bilious  tea,  bitters,  yeast-foam,  and  beer  and  pretzels. 
Now  we  paused  to  make  a  picture  of  some  long,  narrow  lane,  walled  in  by 
blossom-laden  vines,  now  climbed  a  high  railway-trestle  to  get  a  glimpse,  and 
a  camera-shot  at  the  same  time,  of  the  billowy  sea  of  burdened  hop-poles 
beneath. 

Then  we  inquired  about  the  method  and  cost  of  raising,  attendant  care, 
picking,  curing,  prices  realized,  etc.,  and  were  kindly  favored  with  a  very  con- 
cise, lucid,  and  withal  highly  entertaining  account  of  the  cares  and  joys  of  hop- 
growing  (the  industry  doesn't  appear  to  have  any  sorrows  connected  with  it) 
by  E.  Meeker,  Esq.,  one  of  Washington's  pioneer  hop-growers  and  hop 
authorities.  Mr.  Meeker  is  the  author  of  an  excellent  and  exhaustive  treatise 
on  "Hop-Culture  in  the  United  States;"  is  a  gentleman  of  culture  (speaking 
both  literally  and  metaphorically)  and  wide  experience.  His  home  and  post- 


A    RAMBLE    IN    WONDERLAND.  ]  , 

office  address  are  at  Puyallup,  Wash.,  though  he  also  has  extensive  hop-interests 
at  Meeker  and  Kent — in  one  of  his  "  yards  "  near  which  last-mentioned  sta- 
tion we  were  at  the  time  pursuing  our  investigations.  In  discussing  the  subject 
of  hop-growing,  Mr.  Meeker  said: 

The  soil  here  among  the  valleys  of  the  Puget  Sound  Basin  is,  as  anyone 
may  see,  an  alluvial  deposit;  and  that  it  is  remarkably  rich  in  all  that  pro- 
duces plant-growth,  the  luxuriance  of  even  wild  vegetation  bears  ample  testi- 
mony. You  will  probably  be  surprised  when  I  tell  you  that  we  have  no  such 
thing  as  subsoil  here,  and  yet  I  have  actually  experimented  upon  the  subject, 
have  penetrated  this  same  rich  alluvial  mold  to  a  depth  of  144  feet,  and  found 
no  change  —  nothing  that  might  be  classed  as  subsoil. 

Hop-roots  penetrate  the  soil  to  a  great  depth.  In  ditching  through  my 
"yards,"  I  have  found  them  very  abundant  at  a  depth  of  four  feet,  and  roots 
nine  feet  in  length  have  been  seen  where  exposed  by  the  wash  of  river-banks. 
A  crop  can  be  raised  the  first  year  from  cuttings  planted  in  the  spring.  This 
is  not  always  the  case  in  other  hop-growing  regions,  and  is  accounted  for 
from  the  fact  that  our  growing-season  is  a  long  one,  our  soil  exceedingly  rich, 
and  hop-cuttings  unusually  strong  and  vigorous.  During  my  fifteen  years' 
experience  with  the  raising  of  hops,  no  enemies  have  appeared  or  disease 
attacked  them,  and  growers  (here)  hope  and  believe  that  the  peculiarities  of 
soil  and  climate  will  always  insure  their  hops  against  the  ravages  of  disease  so 
destructive  elsewhere.  Hops  have  been  grown  in  these  valleys  continuously 
upon  the  same  land  for  the  past  fifteen  years,  without  any  apparent  diminution 
of  the  crop  or  weakening  of  the  plants.  There  are  hop-yards  of  that  age 
without  a  missing  hill  or  sign  of  decay.  This  very  yard  you  are  now  inspect- 
ing is  bearing  its  tenth  crop,  and  see  the  result.  Why,  as  matter  of  fact,  with 
proper  care,  a  hop-yard  will  last  and  flourish  for  centuries  in  this  deep,  rich 
soil. 

That  the  cultivation  of  hops  requires  unremitting  care  and  diligence  goes 
without  saying;  the  real  trials  of  the  hop-grower  begin  after  the  period  of 
cultivation  is  ended — in  securing  the  requisite  help  to  insure  the  prompt  pick- 
ing of  his  crop,  that,  if  not  quickly  picked,  is  liable  to  deteriorate  in  value. 
Indians  do  most  of  this  work,  thousands  of  them — coming  from  all  parts  of 
the  coast,  even  from  distant  Alaska — being  annually  employed  as  "pickers." 
Many  of  them  become  very  expert,  picking  two,  and  even  three,  boxes  a  day. 
A  hop-box,  standard  size,  holds  19^  bushels,  or  100  pounds,  green  hops,  struck 
measure,  and  $i  a  box  is  paid  for  picking. 

Pickers  quite  generally,  especially  Indian  pickers,  camp  in  close  proximity 
to  the  "yard  "  in  which  they  are  employed.  This  enables  them  to  get  at  work 
at  daybreak,  and  —  once  at  the  picking — they  seldom  quit  work  until  com- 
pelled to  do  so  by  darkness.  These  "camps"  are  not  infrequently  the  scenes 
of  quaint  merry-making  that  would  be  a  fine  study  for  a  painter,  or  call  forth 
the  best  efforts  of  the  descriptive  writer  and  character  delineator;  but  as  a  rule 
pickers  are  weary  enough  by  night-fall,  or  at  all  events  by  the  time  they  have 
prepared  and  eaten  their  evening  meal,  to  retire  to  rest  without  much  ceremony, 
and  in  order  that  they  may  be  prepared  for  the  labors  of  the  morrow.  Fairly 
expert  pickers  daily  earn  from  $r  to  $1.25.  After  picking  comes  the  drying 
process;  and  unless  great  care,  guided  by  experience,  is  exercised,  the  patient 
and  diligent  labors  of  the  entire  season  may  be  frittered  away  and  rendered 
next  to  valueless  in  a  few  hours. 


78  A    RAMBLE    IN    WONDERLAND. 

The  average  yield  per  acre  is  in  the  neighborhood  of  2,000  pounds,  and  the 
total  cost,  including  baling  and  making  ready  for  market,  about  $170  to  $180, 
or  about  9  cents  a  pound. 

While  the  price  of  hops  is  subject  every  year,  nearly,  to  wide  (often  wild) 
fluctuation,  Washington  hop-raisers  may  realize  an  annual  net  profit  of  $100  an 
acre — taking,  say,  ten  years  as  a  basis  of  estimate,  and  the  low  estimate  of  a 
i,6oo-pound  yield  per  acre. 

In  narrating  the  conversation  had  with  Mr.  Meeker,  the  exact  reproduction 
is  not  aimed  at  in  the  foregoing,  but  rather  the  substance. 

The  subject  of  dairying  was  also  incidentally  discussed,  eliciting  the  infor- 
mation that  dairy  products,  and  poultry  products  as  well,  find  a  ready  market 
in  any  of  the  several  cities  of  the  Sound,  all  near  at  hand.  So  important  has 
become  this  industry,  it  was  learned,  that  the  Northern  Pacific  has  found  it 
actually  necessary  to  run  milk-trains  each  morning  from  local  stations  in  dairy- 
ing districts  to  Tacoma  and  Seattle. 

Well  satisfied  with  our  sojourn  in  the  hop  district  adjacent  to  the  Sound,  we 
were  taken  in  charge  by  the  conductor  of  the  north-bound  express  and  given 
a  delightful  afternoon  ride  down  the  Valley  of  White  River  for  a  large  part  of 
the  way  to  Seattle.  I  was  at  first  greatly  astonished  to  find  so  few  reminders, 
even,  of  the  terrible  fire  that  only  a  couple  of  years  ago  blotted  out  almost  the 
whole  of  this  fair  city  from  the  map  of  the  State.  I  had  not  been  a  guest 
within  its  gates  above  a  few  hours,  however,  before  I  had  ceased  to  wonder  at 
anything  that  I  saw  or  heard.  Since  I  have  had  ample  time  to  indulge  in  a 
systematic  retrospection  of  events  which  I  am  able  to  recall  with  tolerable  dis- 
tinctness as  having  occurred  during  my  brief  stay  in  this  Pacific  Coast  phenom- 
enon, I  am  led  to  believe  that  the  storage-battery  of  what  humorist  Nye  would 
probably  call  my  "amazer"  had  in  some  way  ceased  to  perform  its  accustomed 
functions — become  paralyzed,  as  it  were,  from  over-exertion.  I  remember 
being  taken  up  into  a  high  mountain,  and  being  shown  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth, 
or  that  which  passes  as  a  synonym  for  the  earth  in  the  vocabulary  of  the  Seattle 
directory;  of  taking  a  ten  minutes'  ride  on  the  most  rapid  motor-line  of  my 
acquaintance  to  beautiful  Lake  Washington,  set  like  a  turquoise  gem  in  a  circlet 
of  low  wooded  hills;  of  visiting  Lake  Union  and  marveling  at  its  stately  subur- 
ban residences;  of  being  informed  that  great  beds  of  coal  and  iron  ore  lie  at  the 
very  threshold  of  the  city;  that  prolific  adjacent  valleys  surround  its  hilly  penin- 
sular site,  and  pour  their  wealth  of  fruits,  vegetables,  hay,  grain,  and  hops  into  its 
capacious  and  receptive  lap;  that  it  boasts  one  of  the  finest  harbors  on  die 
sound,  yes,  in  the  world;  that  it  has  45,000  progressive  citizens  (I  don't  doubt 
it;  I  should  almost  have  been  willing  to  make  oath  that  there  we*e  twice  that 
number);  conveniently  adjacent  forests  of  choice  timber,  four  railroads,  fifty- 
one  miles  of  street-car  lines  (cable  and  electric),  two  large  hospitals,  three 
daily  and  ten  weekly  newspapers,  ample  water-supply,  a  State  university,  four- 
teen school-buildings,  forty-three  churches,  a  Catholic  academy,  and  two 


A    RAMBLE  IN    WONDERLAND.  ?$ 

standard  theatres;  that  it  is  connected  by  almost  hourly  boats  and  trains  with 
Tacoma;  has  excellent  hotels,  and  thirty-six  wholesale  houses;  that  $14,000,000 
were  invested  in  new  buildings  in  1889  alone;  that  its  manufactures  aggre- 
gated ten  and  a  half  millions  for  the  same  period;  that  since  the  great  fire  of 
June  6  of  that  year,  anyone  proposing  to  erect  anything  short  of  a  fire-proof 
building  within  the  city's  business  limits  is  quite  liable  to  receive  a  visit  from 
the  Board  of  Insanity  and  a  non  compos  mentis  inquest;  that  her  club-men  are 
royal  entertainers — and  from  that  on  my  mind  is  more  or  less  of  a  blank. 

At  an  early  hour  next  morning,  in  company  with  the  superintendent  of  the 
Seattle,  Lake  Shore  &  Eastern  road,  with  which  the  Northern  Pacific  has 
recently  effected  close  traffic  arrangements,  we  were  given  a  delightful  excur- 
sion to  the  Falls  of  the  Snoqualmie,  just  east  of  Seattle,  and  one  of  the  most 
wildly  picturesque  cataracts  of  the  Cascade  Mountains.  The  quite  large  river 
emerges  from  the  high  mountain-pass  of  the  same  name,  and  almost  immedi- 
ately plunges  with  a  thunderous  roar  into  a  sheer  abyss  bordered  by  frowning 
canon-walls  nearly  300  feet  in  depth.  It  is  rapidly  becoming  a  favorite  resort 
for  excursionists  desiring  to  spend  a  day  (only.)  in  some  convenient  forest 
retreat — returning  at  eventide  to  the  hum  and  humdrum  of  city  life  once  more. 
At  these  falls,  not  only  is  the  cool  shade  and  solitude  of  primeval  forests  and 
the  wild  tumultuous  beauty  of  a  rival  Niagara  found,  but  the  angler  may  while 
away  a  pleasant  and  successful  hour  with  his  trout-rod.  After  a  day  thus 
pleasantly  spent,  evening  found  us  returned  in  safety  to  Seattle,  once  again  to 
visit  clubs  and  partake  of — its  large-hearted  hospitality. 

On  the  following  day  we  paid  Anacortes — 108  miles,  by  rail,  up  the  sound 
from  Seattle — a  brief  visit,  passing  through  the  sprightly  town  of  Sedro,  in 
the  Valley  of  the  Skagit  (Sk3j'-lt),  en  route.  Anacortes  is  situated  upon  the 
Island  of  Fidalgo,  one  of  the  many  picturesque  islands  that  well-nigh  cover 
the  northwestern  portion  of  the  sound,  and  is  a  prosperous  and  rapidly  growing 
city.  It  possesses  exceptionally  fine  harbor  facilities ;  is  healthful ;  already 
has  an  extensive  commerce,  and,  like  all  other  sound  cities,  is  largely  engaged 
in  the  manufacture  of  lumber.  The  Pacific  Division  of  the  Northern  Pacific 
(known  as  the  Portland,  Tacoma,  Seattle  &  Anacortes  Line)  runs  north  to 
Sumas,  on  the  boundary,  via  Sedro,  where  connection  is  made  for  New  What- 
com,  Fairhaven,  and  other  thriving  cities  and  towns  farther  north.  Stanch  and 
swift  steamers  also  ply  between  Tacoma,  and  the  various  ports  of  the  sound, 
including  New  Whatcom,  Port  Townsend,  Wash.,  and  Victoria,  B.  C.,  in  con- 
nection with  the  Northern  Pacific,  as  do  also  steamers  to  and  from  Alaska  and 
intermediate  points.  On  returning  from  Anacortes  on  the  evening  of  August 
10,  our  car  was  run  through  to  Tacoma,  to  enable  us  to  obtain  and  dispose  of 
accumulated  mail,  so  as  to  be  in  readiness  for  an  early  start  next  morning  on 
our  leisurely  homeward  journey. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

HOMEWARD  BOUND — BIDDING  FAREWELL  TO  TACOMA  —  HALT  IN  EAGLE 
GORGE — PHOTOGRAPHING  MOUNTAIN  SCENERY — TROUTING  IN  GREEN 
RIVER — THE  VALLEY  OF  THE  KITTITASS — ELLENSBURGH — THE  YAK- 
IMA  CA^ON  —  NORTH  YAKIMA  AND  THE  YAKIMA  VALLEY- — SPO- 
KANE—  THE  BIG  BEND  COUNTRY  —  THE  PALOUSE  COUNTRY  —  THE 
OKANOGAN  AND  COZUR  D'ALENE  MINING  REGIONS — EXCURSION  ON 
PEND  D'OREILLE  LAKE — JOURNEYING  UP  THE  CLARK  FORK — THOMP- 
SON FALLS  AND  HORSE  PLAINS — MISSOULA  AND  VICINITY — VISIT  TO 
PHILIPSBURG  AND  THE  GRANITE  MOUNTAIN  SILVER-MINES — MINING 
AND  ORE-REDUCTION  —  BROADWATER  HOTEL  AND  NATATORIUM  — 
HELENA — BUTTE — ANACONDA — DEER  LODGE — BUTTE  "  AIR  LINE" — 
BOZEMAN. 

HOUGH  I  had  been  kept  busy  with  pen  and  pencil  until 
past  midnight  of  the  loth,  I  was  up  and  about — ready  to  begin 
the  labors  of  the  day — when  the  Atlantic  Express  left  Tacoma 
at  7  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  August  nth  ;  and,  standing  on 
the  rear  platform,  as  the  heavy  train  rumbled  over  the  long 
trestle  spanning  the  head  of  Commencement  Bay,  gazed  long 

and  wistfully   at  the  red-walled   city   within  whose   gates  I  had  been  as  a 

brother — not  a  stranger. 

There  seems  to  be  a  certain  something — hypnotic,  almost  in  its  influence — 

pervading  the  balmy  air  of  the  Pacific  Coast,   from  Victoria  southward,  that 

charms  even  the  casual  wayfarer,  and  makes  him  ready  to  exclaim  : 

"  This  is  the  way  I  long  have  sought, 
And  mourned  because  I  found  it  not." 

This  influence  I  felt  most  powerfully  ;  felt  as  one  feels  when  bidding  adieu 
to  the  blue  rolling  hills  of  childhood's  home —  to  journey  in  distant  lands.  1 
was  glad  to  be  alone  ;  glad  of  the  opportunity  to  take — alone  and  undisturbed— 
a  last  lingering  look  at  the  shifting  panorama  of  homes  and  roof-trees,  mills 
and  market-places,  blue,  forest-fringed  bay,  and  the  white-winged  ships  and 


A  RAMBLE  IN  WONDERLAND.  83 

gliding  steamers  that  floated  upon  its  almost  motionless  bosom  like  stately 
swans  upon  a  sea  of  glass. 

Now  a  bending  of  the  great  highway,  along  which  we  are  speeding,  and  an 
intervening  curtain  of  pines,  rudely  suggest  that  sufficient  time  has  been 
afforded  for  sentiment,  and  that  exacting  duty  demands — here  and  now- 
undivided  attention  and  earnest  effort. 

As  we  journey  eastward  up  the  fruitful,  hop-ful  valley  of  the  milky-hued 
Puyallup,  I  am  far  better  prepared  to  comprehend  and  appreciate  the  vast  and 
rapidly  developing  agricultural  wealth  of  Trans-Cascade  Washington  than 
when,  twelve  days  before,  I  climbed  that  dark,  forest-clad  mountain-wall  now 
once  again  stretching  before  us,  and  with  light  heart  descended  to  the  sea. 

At  Eagle  Gorge,  near  the  base  of  the  Cascades,  our  studio  was  placed  upon 
a  siding  to  await  a  later  train,  and  to  enable  our  artist  to  procure  a  few  desired 
negatives  of  foaming,  plunging  cascades  and  rocky  mountain-glen.  It  is  a 
wild  region  indeed  ;  just  a  solitary  section-house  and  bit  of  winding  track,  a 
narrow,  dashing  river,  a  stretch  of  babbling,  foam-flecked  rapids,  in  a  wild 
forest-glen,  through  whose  shadowing  pines  the  morning  sun  sends  his  slanting 
beams  to  glint  upon  the  smooth  steel  rails  and  play  among  the  luxuriant  ferns 
that  grow  in  feathery  profusion  upon  the  river-brink — "only  this  and  nothing 
more." 

Through  the  courtesy  of  the  roadmaster  of  the  "  division,"  we  found  the 
crew  of  the  section — five  Chinamen,  "bossed  "  by  a  jolly,  quick-witted  Irish- 
man— with  hand-car  in  readiness  to  take  us  to  any  point  on  their  section  where 
it  might  be  desirable  to  employ  the  camera,  and  inconvenient  to  reach  other- 
wise. This  was  my  first  experience  with  Chinese  railway-laborers,  and  I  smiled 
at  the  novelty  of  their  attire — cloth  shoes,  white  stockings,  blue  drilling 
"  bloomers,  "  and  overshirt  of  the  same  material — wide  of  flap  and  unconfined— 
the  whole  surmounted  by  a  broad,  dish-shaped,  circular  hat  of  plaited  cane- 
straw.  But  if  their  attire  was  calculated  to  inspire  merriment,  their  actions  and 
odd  jargon — profusely  intermingled  with,  to  me,  meaningless  gestures — as  the 
large  camera,  plates,  and  tripod  were  brought  out  and  placed  upon  the  pump- 
handled  car,  were  really  amusing. 

Naturally,  I  concluded  that  they  were  wondering  what  the  large  boxes—- 
so carefully  handled — contained  ;  but  the  sequel  proved  that  "  John  "  had  been 
there  before  sometime,  and  was  by  no  means  entirely  unacquainted  with  the 
picture-making  profession.  We  had  reached  a  spot  where  a  high  mountain- 
crag  overhung  a  curving  bit  of  track,  near  a  short  trestle,  under  which  ran  a 
sparkling  brook.  Here  the  hand-car  was  stopped,  and  camera  placed  in  posi- 
tion to  take  in  all  these  important  elements  of  railway  landscape  photography, 
when  it  occurred  to  the  artist  that  the  picture  would  be  improved  by  having 
the  hand-car  and  crew  take  a  position  as  if  just  rounding  the  curve  in  the 
natural  pursuit  of  their  daily  vocation.  The  foreman  being  advised  of  this,  at 


M  A    k AMBLE   IN    WONDERLAND. 

once  had  the  caf  placed  in  the  desired  position,  and  the  laborers  posed  in  satis- 
factory form,  when,  just  as  the  photographer  put  his  head  under  the  "dark- 
cloth"  to  adjust  his  lens,  the  Chinamen  scattered  to  cover  like  a  covey  of 
frightened  partridges.  This  unlooked-for  proceeding  surprised  me  greatly,  as 
it  evidently  did  the  Celt ;  but  Mr.  Haynes  only  smiled,  and  walking  toward 
the  deserted  car,  called  to  the  hiding  Celestials,  "Mellican  man  no  catchee  ;" 
whereupon  Sam  Hop,  one  of  the  laborers,  who  understood  a  little  English, 
came  forward,  and,  by  dint  of  many  gestures  and  patient  reiteration,  became 
convinced  that  the  artist  really  meant  the  laborers  no  harm,  and  at  a  signal 
from  him  the  others  came  straggling  in,  silent  and  sheepish-looking.  The 
artist  explained  that  these  Chinese  had  doubtless  been  smuggled  into  the 
United  States  in  violation  of  the  Chinese  Exclusion  Act,  and  were  afraid  their 
pictures  were  about  to  be  taken  for  purposes  of  identification  in  order  to  secure 
their  return  to  the  Celestial  Empire. 

Our  picture-making  for  the  day  was  concluded  by  mid-afternoon,  and  we 
returned  to  our  car  to  await  the  train  that  should  take  us  across  the  mountains 
and  down  the  Valley  of  the  Yakima  to  Ellensburgh.  Here  was  an  opportunity 
to  try  the  trout,  and  both  the  artist  and  I  availed  ourselves  of  it.  Though  the  fish 
caught  were  none  of  them  very  large  —  running  from  the  size  of  common  brook- 
trout  to  quarter-pounders —  I  fail  to  recall  an  experience  with  livelier  biters. 
Pretty  nearly  every  cast  brought  a  strike,  and  often  two  and  three  of  the  plump, 
speckled  beauties  would  be  hooked  and  landed  at  a  cast.  A  couple  of  hours' 
sport  yielded  a  net  result  of  sixty-seven  to  the  two  rods,  and  I  doubt  if  the 
distance  traveled  by  both  exceeded  a  mile. 

In  due  time,  we  were  taken  in  charge  by  a  passing  freight  and  placed  on  a 
siding  at  Ellensburgh,  one  of  the  chief  and  thriving  cities  of  the  Columbia 
Basin  —  distant  from  Tacoma  125  miles.  Ellensburgh  is  the  county  seat  of 
Kittitass  County,  situated  in  the  Valley  of  the  Kittitass  River,  a  mile  or  so  from 
its  junction  with  the  Yakima.  The  Kittitass  Valley  is  about  twenty  miles  in 
length  by  from  ten  to  fifteen  miles  in  width,  about  two-thirds  of  its  area  requir- 
ing irrigation  as  an  incident  to  crop-production.  The  soil  is  adapted  to  the 
growing  of  cereals,  and  considerable  stock,  also,  is  raised.  Ellensburgh  is  the 
headquarters  of  the  Cascade  Division  of  the  Northern  Pacific,  and  a  city  of  some 
3,500  population.  It  has  a  good  water-power,  flouring-mills,  saw-mills,  planing- 
mills,  a  foundry,  several  good  hotels,  two  banks,  three  newspapers,  etc.,  and  is 
the  center  of  quite  a  large  area  of  mining  country,  embracing  gold,  silver,  copper 
and  coal.  The  rich  mines  of  the  Okanogan  district  are  but  sixty  miles  north. 

It  is  thirty-seven  miles  by  rail  from  Ellensburgh  to  North  Yakima,  the 
route  lying  for  the  greater  part  of  the  way  through  the  picturesque  Yakima 
Canon  —  so-called. 

North  Yakima,  situated  near  the  eastern  entrance  to  this  canon,  in  the  Val- 
ley of  the  Yakima  River  (at  its  junction  with  the  Nachess),  has  a  population 


A    RAMBLE    IN    WONDERLAND.  &> 

of  about  2,700,  and  is  a  pretty  and  thriving  city.  It  is  the  trade-center  of  a 
large  area  of  country  productive  of  grain,  hops,  fruit,  hay,  and  vegetables,  and 
considerable  stock  is  raised  in  the  neighborhood.  The  city  has  a  flouring- 
mill  and  saw-mill,  water-works,  electric-lights,  excellent  schools,  hotels,  news- 
papers, churches,  and  banking-houses.  Fruits  and  vegetables  of  the  finest 
quality  and  flavor  are  readily  grown  throughout  the  Yakima  Valley,  and  the 
yield  is  remarkably  abundant.  The  writer  visited  the  large  orchard  of  Sheriff 
Lesh,  adjoining  the  city,  and  was  simply  astounded  at  what  he  saw.  Hun- 
dreds of  trees  — pear,  peach,  apple  and  plum  —  were  literally  breaking  down 
under  their  weight  of  fruit,  then  rapidly  maturing.  Early  fall  apples  lay  scat- 
tered on  the  ground  by  the  dozens  of  bushels,  rapidly  going  to  decay,  simply 
from  inadequate  means  of  handling.  Mr.  Lesh  stated  that  he  had  been  for 
several  weeks  expecting  the  arrival,  daily,  of  a  large  cider-mill,  which,  had  it 
been  received  in  time,  would  probably  have  enabled  him  to  handle  his  crop 
without  loss.  One  small  peach-tree  ( only  three  years  old,  and  yet  had  borne 
two  crops)  was  pointed  out  from  which  $30  worth  of  early  fruit  had  been  sold 
to  city  dealers.  A  visit  was  also  paid  to  the  residence  and  garden  of  Colonel 
Hewlett,  late  receiver  of  the  United  States  Land  Office  at  North  Yakima,  and  a 
large,  deliciously  flavored,  native-grown  water-melon  partaken  of.  The  Colonel 
is  also  making  a  fine  start  in  the  way  of  grape-culture. 

Tobacco-growing  is  likewise  being  gradually  developed  as  an  industry,  and 
with  great  success.  The  Yakima  is  one  of  the  important  tributaries  of  the 
Columbia,  and  its  valley  is  160  miles  in  length  by  from  three  to  twenty  miles 
in  width. 

The  distance  from  North  Yakima  to  Spokane  is — by  the  Northern  Pacific 
—  235  miles,  the  principal  points  by  the  way  being  Pasco  Junction,  Ritzville, 
Sprague  and  Cheney.  The  first-named  is  the  junction-point  of  the  main  line 
of  the  Northern  Pacific  with  the  line  running  to  Portland  via  Wallula  Junction 
and  the  Columbia  River.  It  is  situated  about  two  miles  from  the  confluence 
of  the  Snake  and  Columbia  rivers,  is  the  county  seat  of  Franklin  County,  and 
has  a  population  of  about  1,000.  The  surrounding  country  is  well  adapted  to 
stock-raising. 

Hither  converges  the  so-called  Hunt  system  of  railroads,  which  traverse 
the  fair  and  fruitful  Valley  of  the  Walla  Walla,  and  the  Umatilla  region  to  the 
south,  the  chief  cities  of  which  are  Walla  Walla,  county  seat  of  Walla  Walla 
County,  and  a  beautiful  city  of  7,000  population;  Dayton,  county  seat  of 
Columbia  County,  and  a  growing  town  of  2,000  inhabitants;  and  Pendleton, 
county  seat  of  Umatilla  County,  population  about  3,000.  This  is  really  one  of 
the  very  finest  fruit,  wheat,  and  stock  regions  in  the  entire  State,  or  in  the  West. 

Ritzville  is  forty-five  miles  still  farther  east,  and  is  the  county  seat  of 
Adams  County.  It  is  located  in  the  midst  of  a  good  agricultural  and  grazing 
section,  and  has  a  population  of  some  500. 


86  A   RAMBLE   IN    WONDERLAND. 

Sprague  is  an  important  town  of  2,000  population,  the  county  seat  of 
Lincoln  County  and  headquarters  of  the  Idaho  Division  of  the  Northern  Pacific. 
It  has  a  flouring-mill,  electric-light  plant,  water-works,  machine-shops,  planing- 
mill,  lumber-yards,  two  school-buildings,  four  churches,  and  is  surrounded  by 
a  good  farming  and  stock  country. 

Cheney  is  twenty-five  miles  east  of  Sprague  and  sixteen  miles  west  of  Spo- 
kane. It  is  situated  in  Spokane  County,  upon  the  elevated  plateau  of  the 
Columbia  Basin,  being  2,300  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  It  has  a  large 
flouring-mill  and  water-works;  is  lighted,  as  becomes  the  bustling  towns  of 
the  West,  by  electricity;  has  1,200  population,  or  thereabouts,  and  is  surrounded 
by  several  lakes  and  an  excellent  farming  and  grazing  section. 

We  awoke  in  Spokane  on  the  morning  of  August  i3th,  our  car  having  been 
brought  through  from  North  Yakima  during  the  previous  night. 

By  way  of  showing  due  appreciation  of  city  life,  and  to  afford  opportunity 
for  the  thorough  dusting  and  cleansing  of  our  traveling-quarters,  we  break- 
fasted at  the  elegant  Hotel  Spokane  and  made  that  headquarters  during  our 
two-days'  stay  in  this  beautiful  falls  city.  Spokane  is  credited,  I  believe,  with 
only  some  26,000  inhabitants  by  Superintendent  Porter's  census  of  1890;  but, 
to  a  casual  observer,  the  city's  actual  population  would  seem  to  be  considerably 
greater.  It  occupies  a  beautiful  plateau  site  on  either  bank  of  the  clear, 
dashing  Spokane  River,  immediately  adjoining  a  series  of  quite  grand  cascade- 
like  falls  that  have  an  aggregate  descent  of  150  feet  in  the  space  of  half  a 
mile,  and  are  estimated  as  capable  of  developing  upward  of  200,000  horse- 
power. It  would  be  difficult  to  conceive  a  water-fall  whose  immense  power 
could  be  more  easily  and  inexpensively  utilized,  and  as  the  river  never  freezes 
and  its  volume  continues  about  the  same  the  year  round,  this  utility  is  greatly 
enhanced.  On  August  5,  1889  (barely  two  years  prior  to  our  visit),  the  entire 
business  portion  of  the  city  was  destroyed  by  fire,  entailing  a  loss  of  nearly 
$10,000,000;  yet  in  one  short  year  that  blackened  space  had  been  covered  by 
commercial  houses  artistic  in  design,  and  both  substantial  and  palatial  in 
structure — the  bare  cost  of  these  new  buildings  alone  exceeding  the  value  of 
all  property  burned  by  $3,000,000  or  more.  Such  is  the  enterprise  of  Spokane 
— "  the  great  gateway  to  a  northwestern  empire  of  endless  resources  and  the 
grandest  possibilities."  Spokane,  in  addition  to  its  other  railroad  facilities,  is 
the  terminal  point  of  several  branch  lines  of  the  Northern  Pacific.  The  Spo- 
kane &  Northern,  an  independent  line,  runs  northward  through  a  combined 
farming  and  mining  region  to  Colville,  Marcus,  Kettle  Falls,  and  the  Little 
Dalles  of  the  Columbia;  the  Northern  Pacific's  Central  Washington  Branch 
runs  westward — 124  miles — to  Wilbur,  Almira,  and  Coulee  City,  in  the  Big 
Bend  region  of  the  Columbia,  and  well  toward  Lake  Chelan  and  the  rich  mines 
of  Okanogan  County;  the  Spokane  Branch  to  Medical  Lake  and  Davenport — 
fifty-one  miles  west;  the  Spokane  &  Palouse  Branch  south  (via  Marshall 


A  RAMBLE  m  wofcDERLANb.  89 

Junction)  to  Oakesdale,  Belmont,  Farmington,  Garfield — connecting  with 
Colfax— Palouse  City,  Pullman,  and  Uniontown  (in  Southeastern  Washington), 
and  Moscow,  Genesee,  Lewiston,  and  Julietta,  across  the  state-line  in  Idaho — 
a  total  distance  of  150  miles;  and  the  Spokane  &  Idaho  Branch  eastward  to 
Cceur  d'Alene  City,  and  by  steamer  across  the  lake  and  up  the  river  of  the 
same  name  to  Mission;  thence  to  Wallace,  Burke,  and  Mullan,  the  three  great 
mining  centers  of  the  marvelously  rich  and  rapidly  developing  Coeur  d'Alene 
mining  district— an  aggregate  distance  of  a  trifle  less  than  100  miles.  Space 
and  the  reader's  patience  would  scarce  suffice  for  an  exhaustive  enumeration 
of  all  the  varied  interests  of  this  young  giant  city,  just  hesitating  upon  the 
threshold  of  a  wonderfully  grand  manufacturing  and  commercial  future — a 
city  surrounded  by  vast  forests  of  valuable  timber,  noble  mountains,  pictur- 
esque lakes,  and  fruitful  vales. 

Among  the  numerous  farming  and  stock-raising  sections  naturally  or 
directly  tributary  to  her  doors  are  several  favored  fruit  regions  that  yield  the 
horticulturist  large  and  certain  returns  for  his  labor,  and  others — like  the 
Palouse  Country — where  cereals  develop  a  phenomenal  growth.  This  last- 
named  and  extensive  region  is  worthy  of  more  particular  and  specific  mention 
and  identification  beyond  the  mere — to  many — meaningless  phrase  "  Palouse 
Country."  This  term  is  employed  to  designate  the  entire  belt  of  rolling  and 
hilly  prairie  country  which  begins  just  south  of  the  fairly  considerable  stretch 
of  timber  through  which  the  main  line  of  the  Northern  Pacific  runs  from  Spo- 
kane to  Sprague,  and  extends  south  and  southwest  to  the  Snake  River.  This 
entire  section  possesses  a  remarkably  fertile  soil,  and  has  an  average  width  of 
some  fifty  miles,  with  an  extreme  length  (reckoning  from  Spokane  to  the  Blue 
Mountains  beyond  Walla  Walla)  of  250  miles.  It  enjoys  an  annual  rainfall 
amply  sufficient  to  insure  the  maturing  of  crops  without  irrigation;  has  a 
margin  of  foot-hills  covered  with  forest-growth,  and  pasture-lands  in  abund- 
ance. The  surface  of  the  country  is  an  endless  succession  of  low,  rounded 
hills  and  small  valleys.  The  only  really  level  lands  lie  along  the  water-courses, 
of  which  there  are  many — constantly  supplied  with  pure,  clear,  healthful  water 
from  the  surrounding  mountains.  The  Palouse  River,  one  of  the  main  feeders 
of  the  Snake,  drains,  together  with  its  numerous  branches  and  tributaries, 
the  very  heart  of  this  vast  region — hence  the  origin  of  the  term  "  Palouse 
Country." 

Wheat  is  the  great  staple  of  this  region,  which  is  to  Washington  what  the 
famous  and  only  Red  River  Valley  is  to  North  Dakota.  Horses  and  cattle 
are  also  raised  here  on  a  grand  scale,  and  sheep  to  a  considerable  extent. 

We  left  Spokane  at  6.35  on  the  morning  of  August  isth,  proceeding  direct 
to  Hope,  Idaho,  eighty-five  miles  east,  arriving  at  10  o'clock,  to  find  a  trim 
little  steamer  in  waiting  to  give  us  an  excursion  upon  grandly  beautiful,  charm- 
ingly picturesque  Lake  Pend  d'Oreille.  Like  its  sister  lakes,  Cceur  d'Alene— 


90  A    RAMBLE   IN    WONDERLAND. 

just  across  the  forest-mantled  mountain-chain  to  the  south — and  delightful 
Yellowstone — nestling  in  the  shadows  of  the  glacier-tipped,  blue  domes  of  the 
National  Park,  this  exquisite  gem  of  the  "  Rockies,"  if  situated  near  any  one 
of  the  great  centers  of  North  America's  population,  would  have  its  praises 
sung  by  myriad  tongues,  until  the  gaping  world  would  speedily  come  to  believe 
that  another  such  ne'er  reflected  the  rosy  blush  of  morn,  nor  the  twinkling  stars 
of  dewy  eve. 

It  is  a  pleasure  to  note,  however,  that  both  these  liquid  sapphires  of  the 
Idaho  mountains  — 

"  Where  sylphs  ride  round  on  ev'ry  breeze, 
And  naiads  dwell  in  brooks  and  fountains," 

are  beginning  to  attract  summer  dwellers  to  their  sylvan  shores.  Several  cot- 
tagers from  Butte,  Helena,  and  Spokane  have  already  erected  charming  villas 
at  one  or  the  other  of  these  cool  retreats;  others  are  catching  the  infection, 
and  the  hotels  at  the  little  lake-side  towns  of  Hope  and  Cceur  d'Alene  City  are 
often  taxed  to  their  utmost  in  the  accommodation  of  tourist  guests. 

We  bade  adieu  to  Lake  Pend  d'Oreille  and  our  kind  entertainers  at  8  o'clock 
that  evening,  and  spent  the  five  succeeding  days  in  leisurely  journeying  up  the 
Clark  Fork,  photographing  the  landscape,  and  occasionally,  as  opportunity 
offered,  tempting  its  large,  gamy  trout  with  an  assortment  of  "  brown  hackles/' 
"red  ibises,"  and  "  professors  "  that  would  have  tinged  old  Uncle  Isaak  Wal- 
ton's solemn,  meditative  countenance  a  perfectly  lovely  Nile-green. 

Thompson  Falls  and  Horse  Plains  are  the  only  towns  of  even  passing  im- 
portance between  Hope  and  Missoula,  and  they  have  each  a  population  of  only 
two  or  three  hundred. 

Missoula  is  situated  in  the  northwest  basin  of  Montana,  in  the  midst  of  a 
most  excellent  combined  farming  and  grazing  region,  no  less  than  three  exten- 
sive valleys  radiating  from  its  surrounding  plain  as  from  a  common  center. 
These  valleys  are  the  Bitter  Root,  which  winds  away  to  the  southward,  for 
100  miles,  to  the  Mineral  Hill  mining  region,  and  varies  in  width  from  two  to 
ten  miles;  the  Missoula,  which  extends  westward  for  a  distance  of  seventy 
miles,  and  with  an  average  width  of  some  three  or  four  miles;  and,  lastly, 
the  Big  Blackfoot,  stretching  away  toward  the  northeast  for  about  the  same 
distance. 

Missoula  already  has  a  population  of  about  6,500,  and  is  the  only  city  of 
considerable  size  between  Helena,  124  miles  east,  and  Spokane,  230  miles  west. 
Its  triple-valley  region  (barely  3,000  feet  above  the  sea)  is,  with  the  exception 
of  the  Lower  Yellowstone  Valley,  the  least  elevated  of  all  the  farming-lands  of 
Montana. 

It  has  a  good  water-power,  daily  newspapers,  street-cars,  electric-lights, 
four  school-buildings,  five  churches,  three  banks,  and  homes  that  would  grace 
St.  Paul  or  Minneapolis.  It  is  the  headquarters  of  the  Rocky  Mountain  Divi- 


A    RAMBLE    IN    WONDERLAND.  !»1 

sion  of  the  Northern  Pacific,  which  has  an  excellent  hospital  located  here,  and 
runs  a  branch  (the  Missoula  &  Bitter  Root  Valley  Branch)  to  Grantsdale,  fifty 
miles  south. 

Drummond,  fifty-three  miles  east  of  Missoula,  is  the  diverging-point  of  the 
Drummond  &  Philipsburg  Branch  of  the  Northern  Pacific,  extending  to  Phil- 
ipsburg  and  Rumsey,  at  the  base  of  Granite  Mountain  —  thirty-one  miles. 
Granite  Mountain  is  in  reality,  one  might  say,  a  mountain  of  silver;  its  "  Granite 
Mountain  "  and  "  Bi-metallic  "  mines  being  the  most  celebrated  silver-producers 
in  the  world.  It  is  four  miles  by  wagon-road  from  Philipsburg,  at  the  base  of 
the  mountain,  to  its  summit,  where  the  mines  are  being  worked.  We  were 
given  the  pleasure  of  a  day's  excursion  to  these  noted  mines,  August  20th,  as 
the  especial  guests  of  Paul  A.  Fusz,  president  of  the  Bi-Metallic  Company,  who 
entertained  us  right  royally  and  gave  us  carte  blanche  to  visit  mine  and  mill  and 
to  extend  our  rambles  as  much  as  one  can  who  suddenly  finds  himself  groping 
about  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth  with  only  a  sputtering  tallow-dip  to  guide  his 
stumbling  foot-steps.  Indeed  it  is  a  revelation  to  visit  this  gigantic  bee-hive 
of  mining  industry.  Upon  the  crest  of  this  great  mountain  —  7,200  feet  above 
the  sea — is  the  little  city  of  Granite  —  population  1,500  —  with  its  gravity- 
pressure  supply  of  pure  water;  its  inevitable  electric-lights;  its  fine  public 
school,  three  churches,  hospital,  reading-rooms,  and  brass-band.  The  men,  of 
course,  for  the  most  part  labor,  in  one  capacity  or  another,  in  the  mines,  hoist- 
ing-works, and  saw-mills  at  the  summit.  But  what  shall  I  say  of  this  great 
treasure-house  of  silver  through  whose  dark,  damp,  narrow  halls  I  wandered  in 
open-mouthed  wonder?  Let  us  start  at  the  main  hoisting-shaft,  roofed  over 
and  arched  above  by  a  great  wooden  hoisting-works  building,  almost  as  big  as 
Tammany  Hall,  and  quite  as  busy,  though  lacking  a  trifle  of  the  latter's  war- 
paint and  feathers.  Stepping  into  an  empty  cage  by  the  side  of  genial  (jolly  in 
fact)  Superintendent  Risque,  who  played  the  role  of  guide  and  instructor-in-chief, 
we  pressed  the  button  and  the  watchful  engineer  did  the  rest  —  shooting  us 
down  to  the  i,i5o-foot  level  quicker  than  you  could  say  Jack  Robinson.  I  beg 
pardon  — John  Robinson. 

Leaving  the  cage  to  its  own  reflections,  we  groped  our  slippery,  stumbling 
way,  with  lighted  (part  of  the  time)  candles,  to  where  the  miners  were  at  work 
with  pick  and  drill  "drifting"  into  and  along  a  vein  of  ore  that  had  a  dull 
metallic  lustre,  but  aside  from  that  bore  no  striking  resemblance  to  the  coin  of 
the  realm.  After  spending  the  greater  part  of  an  hour  under  ground,  inspec- 
ting the  various  "  drifts,"  "levels,"  "cross-cuts,"  and  the  powerful  pumps  that 
keep  the  mine  free  from  water,  we  returned  to  the  surface  and  followed  the  ore 
we  had  seen  mined,  and  which  was  being  brought  up  the  deep,  dark  shafts  in 
little  box-shaped  iron  cars,  through  its  several  processes  of  reduction.  It  is 
first  crushed  by  being  fed  upon  a  slanting,  bridge-like  arrangement,  about 
three  or  four  feet  in  width,  and  provided  with  a  heavy  plate  of  corrugated  cast- 


93  A    RAMBLE    IN    WONDERLAND. 

iron.  This  bridge  is  forced  to  move  up  and  down  and  back  and  forth  against 
a  solid  iron-faced  wall  in  such  a  way  that  lumps  of  ore  larger  than  a  man's  closed 
hand  are  broken  and  crushed  to  fragments  before  they  can  drop  between  the 
end  of  the  bridge,  or  "  crusher,"  and  the  adjacent  wall  into  the  receiving-bin 
just  below.  From  this  receiving  bin,  it  is  allowed  to  drop  into  iron  buckets  (each 
holding  500  pounds)  attached  at  regular  intervals  to  an  endless,  moving  wire 
cable,  that  fits  into  the  concave  rim  of  an  immense  horizontal  wheel,  and  runs 
from  the  "hoisting-works  "  to  the  mill  at  the  base  of  the  mountain,  where  a 
duplicate  wheel  stands  on  the  top  or  "  receiving  "  floor  of  the  mill.  The  loaded 
buckets  descend  from  the  "crusher"  to  the  mill  on  one  side  of  this  tram-way, 
their  combined  momentum  serving  not  only  to  carry  back  up  the  mountain  the 
empty  buckets  attached  to  the  other  side  of  the  long  cable,  but  also  to  generate 
sufficient  power  to  crush  the  ore. 

Once  received  at  the  mill,  the  ore  is  dumped  into  large  receiving-bins  arid 
fed,  as  required,  to  the  steel  "stamps"  on  the  floor  below,  where  it  is  pulver- 
ized into  powder.  The  now  powdered  ore  is  next  mixed  with  from  10  to  14 
per  cent,  (of  its  bulk)  of  rock-salt,  and  allowed  to  descend  to  a  still  lower  floor, 
into  a  receptacle  whose  small  iron  spout  delivers  it,  gradually,  to  the  large 
revolving  "  roasting-drums,"  in  which  it  is  thoroughly  "roasted."  This  is 
accomplished  by  having  large  wood-furnaces  at  one  end  of  the  cylindrical 
drums — supported  in  a  horizontal  position — and  draught-flues  at  the  other  end, 
resulting  in  drawing  the  flames  through  the  drums  in  such  a  way  that  the  pow- 
dered ore  and  salt,  which  cling  for  a  time  to  their  walls,  may  finally  drop  into 
and  through  the  flames  repeatedly,  or  until  to  an  observer  at  the  "  peep-hole  " 
they  resemble  red-hot  ashes.  This  roasting  is  done  to  drive  off  the  sulphur 
with  which  the  metals  contained  in  the  powdered  ore  are,  up  to  this  point, 
united  in  the  form  of  sulphides  of  silver,  gold,  etc.  As  the  ultimate  process 
(employed  in  the  Bi-metallicmill)  of  separating  the  metals  from  the  "gangue," 
or  worthless  rock-material  that,  as  a  matter  of  course,  forms  the  greater  part 
of  the  triturated  powder,  consists  in  collecting  them  by  direct  contact  with 
quicksilver  (amalgamation),  and  as  quicksilver  has  an  affinity  for  metallic  chlo- 
rides, but  not  for  metallic  sulphides,  it  follows  that  the  character  of  the  metal 
compounds  contained  in  the  powdered  ore  must  be  changed  to  meet  the  con- 
ditions of  amalgamation,  or  that  some  other  process  of  separation  must  be 
resorted  to.  The  changing  of  the  character  of  the  metals  from  sulphides  to 
chlorides  is  largely  effected  in  the  roasting-drums,  where  the  sulphur  in  combi- 
nation with  the  various  metals  present  is  (literally)  roasted  out,  and  driven  off 
out  of  the  draught-flues,  the  roasting  of  the  salt  present  at  the  same  time 
resulting  in  setting  free  its  chlorine,  which  mingles  freely  with  the  powdered 
metals,  and,  to  a  very  great  extent,  takes  the  place  of  the  expelled  sulphur. 
The  furnace-drums  in  which  this  roasting  is  done  are  provided  with  raised 
strips,  or  conveyors,  which  run  round  and  round  them  in  spiral  form,  and  grad- 


A    RAMBLE   IN    WONDERLAND.  95 

ually  convey  the  ore-powder  from  the  end  of  the  drum  at  which  it  ente 
the  furnace  end,  where  it  is  permitted  to  escape  to  cemented  "  cooling-bins  " 
on  the  next  lower  floor. 

Here  the  powdered  and  roasted  ore  lies  like  a  great  heap  of  fine,  blackish 
ashes  for  the  space  of  four  or  five  days,  during  which  the  process  of  chlorina- 
tion  goes  on,  and  becomes  more  perfect.  Then  it  is  conveyed  to  the  iron 
amalgamating-tubs,  or  "  pans,"  as  they  are  called,  each  as  large  as  a  half-hogs- 
head. These  pans  are  operated  in  much  the  same  manner  that  ice-cream 
freezers  are,  each  being  furnished  with  an  upright  central  shaft,  connected  with 
gearing  overhead,  that  causes  it  to  revolve  as  rapidly  as  desired.  Each  shaft 
is  provided  with  slightly  curved  lateral  arms  ("mullers")  which  stir  and  mingle 
the  ore-powder  with  the  water,  which  is  added  as  soon  as  a  pan  is  "  charged," 
and  the  stirring  is  kept  up  until  the  contents  of  the  pan  are  of  about  the  con- 
sistency of  whitewash — or  rather  blackwash — when  a  small  quantity  of  quick- 
silver is  poured  into  the  pan,  and  the  stirring  continued  until  it  is  reasonably 
certain  that  every  particle  of  metal  present  has  come  in  contact  with  and  been 
gathered  up  by  the  mercury.  This  is  amalgamation;  and  when  the  process  is 
complete,  the  muddy  water  is  allowed  to  drain  off,  and  the  amalgam  removed 
from  the  pan  and  retorted.  By  this  process  the  quicksilver  is  once  more  set 
free,  passing  off  as  vapor  and  being  condensed  by  being  passed  through  water- 
jacketed  pipes  at  whose  down-hill  end  there  are  metal  cups  in  which  to  catch 
and  save  it  for  future  use.  The  residuum  of  metal — gold,  silver,  lead,  and 
what-not — left  in  the  retort  is  now  melted  and  cast  into  bullion-bars  (each 
weighing  145  pounds),  and  shipped  to  eastern  refineries,  where  the  different 
metals  are  separated  one  from  the  other  and  purified  or  refined. 

Anything  like  an  accurate  idea  of  the  mineral  wealth  of  Montana  is  as  im- 
possible of  formation  as  a  correct  estimate  of  infinity  itself.  Statistics  tell  us 
that  the  annual  "  output "  is  constantly  increasing,  and  that  it  reached  the 
enormous  bullion  value  of  $50,000,000  for  the  year  1891.  We  know,  too,  that 
the  work  of  development  is  just  begun.  Further  than  this  we  know  absolutely 
nothing,  and  may  only  browse  around  the  "common  "  of  conjecture. 

Take,  for  example,  this  mountain  of  silver- veined  granite.  The  Granite 
Mountain  Mining  Company  paid  its  first  dividend  April  8,  1885.  It  now  treats 
250  tons  of  ore  daily,  yields  350,000  ounces  of  silver  monthly,  ami  has  produced 
more  than  $18,000,000  in  mineral  wealth.  The  lli-Mc-t.illic  Company's  proper- 
ties are  of  more  recent  development.  Its  first  dividend  was  paid  only  in  July. 
1889,  and  yet  its  monthly  output  has  already  reached  the  startling  proportion^ 
of  150,000  ounces  of  silver,  with  every  prospect  of  an  enormous  increase  as  tin- 
months  roll  on. 

We  breakfasted  under  the  glare  of  incandescent  lamps  at  mine  headquarters, 
at  the  "  summit,"  on  the  morning  of  August  2ist;  and  the  stars  were  yet  twink- 
ling in  the  blue  above  as  we  wound  our  way  at  a  good  round  pace  down  the 


96  A    RAMBLE    IN    WONDERLAND. 

famous  mountain  to  Philipsburg.  This  is  a  well-built  mining  town  of  2,000 
population,  situated,  as  already  stated,  in  the  shadow  of  Granite  Mountain  and 
at  the  head  of  the  pretty  little  Valley  of  the  Flint  River,  down  which  the  rail- 
road runs  to  Drummond. 

We  arrived  at  the  Hotel  Broadwater  (Helena's  noted  suburban  retreat,  con- 
nected with  the  city  by  quarter-hourly  steam-motor  and  electric  trains)  in  time 
for  luncheon,  and  a  stroll  about  the  spacious  grounds  and  great  natatorium 
before  dinner.  If  there  is  a  more  delightful  or  healthful  mountain  resort 
within  the  domains  of  Uncle  Samuel,  I  should  like  to  be  apprised  of  the  fact, 
in  order  that  I  may  impart  the  information  to  Montana's  great  Democratic 
sachem  by  early  post. 

Nineteen  years  ago,  Col.  C.  A.  Broadwater,  one  of  Helena's  foremost  men 
of  enterprise,  became  the  sole  owner  of  the  healing  mineral  springs  now  known 
to  the  world  as  the  "  Helena  Hot  Springs."  With  an  eye  to  conferring  an 
inestimable  boon  upon  humanity,  and  incidentally,  it  may  be  presumed,  to  the 
designing  of  a  monument  that  should  add  to  the  fair  fame  of  the  city  with 
whose  upbuilding  and  advancement  the  best  years  of  a  busy  life  have  been 
occupied,  he,  some  three  years  since,  began  the  building  of  a  palatial  hotel  and 
aquatic  theatre,  that,  together  with  the  construction  of  a  small  artificial  lake 
near  at  hand,  the  erection  of  fountains,  and  beautifying  of  grounds,  have  cost 
a  cool  half-million. 

That  this  great  sum  has  been  judiciously  expended,  the  visitor,  though  a 
stranger  to  the  genial  Colonel's  reputed  business  thrift  (and  very  possibly,  also, 
not  upon  terms  of  familiarity,  bordering  upon  intimacy,  with  bank  accounts 
characterized  by  such  charmingly  romantic  embonpoint),  would  scarce  find  occa- 
sion to  doubt.  The  large,  broad-verandaed,  cottage-planned  hotel  is  indeed  a 
gem;  and  that  it  is  supplied  with  every  convenience  that  modern  thought  and 
ingenuity  could  suggest  would  naturally  be  inferred.  Every  room  is  supplied 
with  hot  mineral  water,  and  the  private  mineral  baths  connected  with  the  house 
are  exceptionally  fine,  even  for  a  resort  where  bathing  is  a  feature  of  leading 
interest.  Some  idea  of  their  elegance  may  be  suggested  by  the  fact  that  every 
one  of  the  numerous  bath-tubs  is  of  solid  porcelain,  pleasingly  decorated,  and 
imported  from  Europe  at  a  cost  of  $250  each. 

Both  the  ladies'  and  gentlemen's  bathing-apartments  are  also  provided  with 
shower,  vapor,  and  spray  baths.  I  care  not  to  dwell  at  length,  however,  upon 
the  hotel,  airy,  well-appointed,  and  restful  as  it  is. 

Facing  its  main  entrance — but  a  few  rods  distant — and  reached  by  tree- 
embowered  and  flower-skirted  walks,  is  the  marvel  of  nineteenth  century  swim- 
ming-baths—  the  Broadwater  Natatorium  —  open  to  the  public  day  and 
evening. 

It  is  said  to  have  been  designed  to  be  the  largest  and  most  nearly  perfect 
structure  of  its  kind  in  the  world — and  it  occurs  to  me,  as  a  matter  of  private 


A    RAMBLE    IN    WONDERLAND.  97 

opinion,  that  the  designer  probably  understood  his  business,  and  that  the 
builder  followed  his  plans  with  scrupulous  nicety. 

The  great  twin-towered  building  is  of  Moorish  architecture,  150x350  feet 
in  size,  100  feet  to  the  crowning  roof,  with  towers  half  as  high  again.  The 
roof  is  supported  upon  circular  trusses,  leaving  the  large  interior  entirely  free 
from  column  or  support  that  might  obstruct  the  view.  It  is  lighted  by  20,000 
square  feet  of  colored  cathedral  glass  by  day  and  a  multitude  of  electric-lamps 
by  night.  A  full  million  gallons  of  hot  mineral  water  run  through  it  daily,  half 
as  much  cold  spring  water  being  required  to  temper  this  scalding  flood  for  the 
use  of  bathers.  The  hot  water  bubbles  up  through  a  small  geyser-cone,  being 
caught  in  a  shallow  fountain-like  basin,  into  which  tumbles  a  sparkling  cascade 
of  cold  water  from  a  forty-foot  seeming  precipice  of  vine-entwined,  moss- 
grown  granite.  The  swimming-pool  is  100x300  feet  in  size,  constructed  of 
stone  and  cement,  the  tempered  spring  overflow  keeping  it  constantly  supplied 
with  ever-changing  water.  It  varies  in  depth  from  two  to  twelve  feet,  and  is 
surrounded  by  a  railed  promenade  ten  feet  in  width,  upon  which  100  large 
steam-heated  dressing-rooms  open.  A  careful  analysis  of  the  waters  of  these 
springs  shows  that  they  are  almost  identical  in  character  with  those  of  the 
celebrated  hot  springs  of  Arkansas. 

HELENA,  the  handsome  capital  city  of  silver-zoned  Montana,  is  likewise  the 
county  seat  of  Lewis  and  Clarke  County.  Its  site  occupies  either  bank  of  a 
sloping  ravine  at  the  head  of  picturesque  Prickly  Pear  Valley — twelve  by 
twenty  miles  in  extent — surrounded  on  nearly  every  hand  by  noble  mountain- 
chains  and  towering  snow-capped  peaks.  It  has  a  population  of  14,000  or  more, 
and  is  the  commercial  and  financial  center  of  the  State.  Hither  converge  all 
the  stage  and  express  routes  and  telegraph  and  railway  lines  of  Montana. 

Helena  has  seven  banking-houses,  whose  capital,  surplus,  and  undivided 
profits  are  the  admiration  of  the  financial  world.  It  also  enjoys  the  proud 
distinction  of  being  the  wealthiest  city  either  in  America  or  in  the  world  at 
large—its  per  capita  bank  deposits,  capital,  etc.,  being  greater  than  those  of 
any  other  town  or  city.  It  is  likewise,  in  large  measure,  the  center  of  the  retail 
and  jobbing  trade  of  the  State,  having  ten  wholesale  and  retail  grocery  houses, 
three  large  dry-goods  houses,  four  large  hardware-stores,  one  crockery  and 
notion  house,  three  stores,  each  carrying  a  large  and  varied  line  of  boots  and 
shoes,  seven  clothing-houses,  four  drug  and  three  furniture  houses,  four  sad- 
dlery and  harness  stores,  etc.  In  the  way  of  manufactures,  it  boasts  foundries, 
breweries,  a  large  ore-smelter,  saw,  grist,  and  planing  mills,  wagon- factories, 
and  like  industries.  The  city  is  well  supplied  with  pure  water  brought  from 
distant  mountain  streams;  with  electrical  plants  for  illuminating  purposes  and 
for  generating  motive  power;  a  convenient  telephone  exchange;  ample  street 
railway  facilities  (operated  both  by  steam  and  electricity),  and  is  situated  in  the 
very  heart  of  the  richest  mining  region  thus  far  discovered.  Within  a  radius  of 


A    RAMBLE    IN    WONDERLAND. 

twenty-five  miles  are  no  less  then  3,000  gold  and  silver  bearing  lodes,  claims  to 
which  have  already  been  recorded  agreeably  with  mining  laws  and  regulations; 
and  new  ones  are  being  discovered  almost  daily. 

Late  in  the  afternoon  of  August  25th,  our  car  was  run  down  to  Logan — 
seventy-four  miles  east — and  we  spent  a  couple  of  hours  most  pleasantly  trout- 
fishing  in  the  clear  waters  of  the  West  Gallatin.  Early  next  morning  we  were 
"  picked  up  "  by  the  local  express  running  between  Bozeman  and  Butte,  and 
paid  a  brief  visit  to  the  world's  greatest  mining  city. 

BUTTE — the  capital  of  Silver  Bow  County — is  built  about  the  sides  of  a 
sloping  hill  or  butte  (bate) — whence  its  name — that  is  sunk  so  full  of  mining- 
shafts,  and  dotted  with  such  great  heaps  of  refuse  gangue  from  the  ore-mills,  as 
to  almost  resemble  a  giant  ant-hill.  It  lies  right  under  the  shadow  of  the 
main  "  divide  "  of  the  Rockies  (on  its  west  slope),  at  the  very  head  and  source 
almost  of  the  Clark  Fork  of  the  Columbia,  here  designated  as  the  Silver  Bow. 
That  it  is  the  great  mining-camp  of  the  world  everybody  knows.  It  is  more 
than  a  mere  "camp;"  it  is  a  great  and  growing  city,  having  (including  its 
suburbs)  a  population  of  not  far  short  of  30,000.  The  most  famous  combined 
silver  and  copper  mining  properties  ever  developed  are  here  hoisting  and 
stamping,  roasting  and  treating  ores  that  pour  a  steadily  increasing  stream  of 
mineral  wealth  into  the  laps  of  owners,  miners,  tradesmen,  and  mechanics  con- 
cerning which  the  world  at  large  realizes  next  to  nothing.  Think  of  it!  A 
single  year's  output  of  these  mines  (almost  within  the  corporate  limits  of  this 
city  of  many  mills)  piled  up  in  one  enormous  heap  of  gold,  silver, 
copper,  lead,  etc.,  would  increase  your  bank  account  by  thirty  millions, 
and  these  Butteites  have  only  just  fairly  gotten  under  way. 

With  an  altitude  of  5,878  feet  above  the  sea,  this  phenomenal  city  has  an 
excellent  system  of  water  works,  fire-companies,  a  court  house  costing  $150,000, 
electric  illumination,  three  street  railway  systems  (cable,  steam,  and  electric- 
motor),  two  telegraph  companies,  and  a  monthly  pay-roll  of  nearly  or  quite 
$i,ood,ooo. 

The  "Air  Line"  recently  constructed  by  the  Northern  Pacific  Company 
from  Logan  to  Butte — seventy-one  miles — is  one  of  the  most  grandly  pictur- 
esque routes  of  railway  on  the  Continent  of  North  America.  By  means  of  its 
excellent  traffic  arrangements  with  the  Montana  Union  Railway,  which  has  a 
line  from  Butte  to  Garrison  (on  the  Northern  Pacific)  via  Anaconda  and  Deer 
Lodge,  the  Northern  Pacific  is  able  to  run  through  trains  from  Chicago  to 
Tacoma,  Seattle,  and  Portland  by  way  of  Butte. 

Anaconda  and  Deer  Lodge  are  cities  of  the  Deer  Lodge  Valley — distant 
from  Butte  ten  and  forty  miles,  respectively,  and  almost  exactly  the  same  dis- 
tance (though,  of  course,  in  reverse  order)  from  Garrison,  the  junction-point 
of  the  Montana  Union  with  the  main  line  of  the  Northern  Pacific — fifty  miles 
west  of  Helena.  Anaconda  has  a  population  of  about  6,000,  and  is  developing 


A    RAMBLE    IN    WONDERLAND.  101 

into  an  important  manufacturing  center.  The  smelting  works  and  copper- 
refinery  of  the  great  Anaconda  Mining  Company  are  located  here,  at  which 
2,000  men  find  constant  employment  at  good  wages.  Large  foundry,  machine, 
and  boiler  shops  are  also  in  operation,  and  all  branches  of  trade  are  well  rep- 
resented and  established  upon  a  solid  basis.  The  leading  hotel  is  the  "Mon- 
tana,"— an  elegant  house — built  and  owned  by  Marcus  Daly.  The  population 
of  Deer  Lodge  is  about  1,800  to  2,000.  It  is  the  county  seat  of  Deer  Lodge 
County,  and  is  surrounded  by  an  excellent  farming  country. 

The  Northern  Pacific  has  branch  lines  running  to  Marysville,  Rimini, 
Wickes,  Boulder,  Elkhorn,  and  other  mining  towns  of  importance  in  the  vicinity 
of  Helena  and  Butte,  but  as  our  time  was  somewhat  limited  we  did  not  pay 
them  a  visit. 

We  bade  adieu  to  Butte  at  8  A.  M.  of  August  28th,  and  returning  across  the 
"backbone  of  the  continent,"  through  the  Homestake  Tunnel,  and  down  the 
wildly  grand  canon  of  the  Jefferson  River  to  Logan,  proceeded  to  Bozeman. 

Bozeman  vies  with  Missoula  in  laying  claim  to  the  title  of  "  Garden  City  of 
the  Rockies."  It  is  the  county  seat,  and  commercial  center  as  well,  of  Gallatin 
County,  is  situated  at  the  head  of  the  famed  Gallatin  Valley,  and  has  a  popu- 
lation of  between  3,000  and  4,000. 

It  has  five  hotels  (one — the  Bozeman — recently  opened,  that  cost  upward 
of  $100,000),  an  elegant  opera-house,  besides  several  public  halls,  a  fine  public 
library,  two  public  and  two  private  schools,  an  academy,  national  banks,  seven 
churches,  all  having  fine  edifices,  a  United  States  land  office,  a  number  of 
manufactories  (including  two  flouring-mills),  a  fine  court  house,  and  a  com- 
bined electric-light  and  water-works  plant.  Extensive  coal-mines  are  being 
worked  in  the  near  vicinity,  and  there  are  rich  mines  of  gold,  silver,  iron,  and 
copper  near  by.  Both  placer  and  quartz  mining  are  being  energetically  pur- 
sued, and  with  such  success  as  to  warrant  greatly  increased  work  of  develop- 
ment. 

Placer-mining  consists  in  separating  particles  of  "  free  "  gold  (some  as  fine 
almost  as  flour,  and  from  that  up  to  nuggets  the  size  of  a  pea  or  larger)  from 
the  beds  of  gravel  in  which  they  have  been  deposited  by  glacial  action.  This 
is  accomplished  by  washing  the  gravel,  either  by  hand,  or,  as  is  now  more  fre- 
quently the  case,  by  hydraulic  power,  which  washes  both  gold  and  gravel 
through  long  lines  of  « sluice-boxes,"  the  weight  of  the  particles  of  gold  caus- 
ing them  to  settle  to  the  bottom  of  the  boxes,  while  the  lighter  gravel  is  carried 
on  and  finally  added  to  the  heap  of  "tailings"  at  the  exit  of  the  sluices. 

The  surrounding  country — the  Gallatin  Valley— is  celebrated  as  one  of 
the  exceptionally  fine  farming  and  grazing  regions  of  Montana.  Game  and 
fish  here  abound,  and  the  climate  is  dry,  bracing,  and  healthful. 

Bozeman  is  a  city  of  shady  avenues  and  delightful  homes,  and  is  the  seat 
of  much  culture  and  refinement. 


102 


A    RAMBLE    IN    WONDERLAND. 


We  continued  on  to  Livingston  on  the  evening  of  the  29th.  Here  Mr. 
Haynes  left  me  to  return  to  Mammoth  Hot  Springs. 

The  time  had  passed  so  pleasantly  and  rapid  since  we  had  been  journey- 
ing together,  that  I  regretted  having  reached  the  cross-roads  of  even  temporary 
separation. 

August  3ist  found  me  again  at  my  desk,  with  energy  renewed  and  an 
increased  capacity  for  work  that  not  even  the  accumulated  pile  of  neglected 
correspondence  appeared  to  affect  in  the  least  degree. 


NORTHERN  PACIFIC  R.  R. 


Rates  and  Arrangements  for  the  Tourist  Season. 


MINNESOTA  SUMMER  RESORTS.  —  The  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  will  sell 
round-trip  excursion  tickets  from  St.  Paul  or  Minneapolis  to  Glen  wood  (Lake  Minnewaska)  at 
$5.25;  Battle  Lake,  $7.50;  Fergus  Falls,  $7.50;  Detroit  Lake,  $9.15;  Minnewaukan  (Devil's 
Lake),  $18.65;  Winnipeg,  $22.50.  From  Duluth  or  Superior  to  Battle  Lake,  $7.50;  Fergus 
Falls,  $7.50;  Detroit  Lake,  $9.15;  Minnewaukan,  $18.65;  Winnipeg,  $22.50.  From  Ashlan.l. 
Wis.,  to  Battle  Lake,  $9.00;  Fergus  Falls,  $9.00;  Detroit  Lake,  $10.65;  Minnewaukan,  $20.15; 
Winnipeg,  $22.50.  Tickets  on  sale  May  1st  to  September  3Oth,  inclusive.  Good  going  to 
Minnesota  resorts  one  day  (from  Ashland  two  days),  to  Minnewaukan  (Devil's  Lake)  and 
Winnipeg  two  days  from  date  of  sale.  Good  to  return  on  or  before  October  31^. 

YELLOWSTONE  PARK  RATES.— The  Northern  Pacific  Railroad,  the  only  rail 
line  to  the  Park,  will  sell  round-trip  excursion  tickets  from  May  29th  to  September  28th  (both 
dates  inclusive)  at  the  following  rates: 

A  $120.00  Ticket,  including  the  following  traveling  expenses,  from  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis, 
Duluth,  or  Ashland  on  the  east,  and  Portland,  Tacoma,  or  Seattle  on  the  west,  to  and  through 
the  Park  (including  Yellowstone  Lake)  and  return  to  starting  point,  viz.:  Railroad  and  stage 
transportation,  Pullman  sleeping  car  fares,  meals  on  Northern  Pacific  dining  cars,  and  board  and 
lodging  at  the  Park  Association  Hotels  six  and  one-quarter  days. 

A  $50.00  Round-trip  Ticket,  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis,  Duluth,  or  Ashland  to  Livingston  and 
return. 

A  $14.00  Ticket,  Livingston  to  Mammoth  Hot  Springs  Hotel  and  return,  including  rail  and 
stage  transportation,  breakfast  going  and  dinner  returning  on  Park  Branch  dining  car,  and  one 
and  three-quarter  days'  board  at  Mammoth  Hot  Springs. 

A  $50.00  Ticket,  Livingston  to  Cinnabar  and  return  (breakfast  going  and  dinner  returning  on 
Park  Branch  dining  car),  Cinnabar  to  Mammoth  Hot  Springs,  Norris,  Lower  and  Upper  Geyser 
Basins,  Yellowstone  Lake,  Grand  Canon  and  Falls  of  the  Yellowstone  and  return,  including  rail 
and  stage  transportation,  and  six  and  one-quarter  days'  accommodations  at  the  Association 
Hotels. 

Limit  and  Conditions  of  Tickets.— The  $120.00  Ticket  will  be  on  sale,  at  eastern  and 
western  termini  named,  May  2gth  to  September  28th,  inclusive;  by  eastern  lines.  May  28th  to 
September  27th,  limit  40  days;  good  going  30  days,  returning  10  days,  but  must  be  used  in  the 
Park  before  October  6th.  Stop-overs  within  final  limit  at  or  east  of  Billings,  and  at  or  west  of 
Helena.  Return  portion  of  ticket  must  be  signed  and  stamped  at  Mammoth  Hot  Springs  Hotel, 

(103) 


after  which  ticket  must  be  presented  on  Main  Line  train  for  return  passage  within  one  day  from 
such  date.  Stop-overs  in  Park  granted  at  pleasure  of  holder  within  final  limit  of  ticket. 

Limit  of  $50.00  Rail  Ticket,  same  as  above.  Stop-over  privileges  allowed  within  limits. 
Return  portion  of  ticket  must  be  stamped  and  signed  at  Livingston  ticket  office. 

The  $14.00  and  $50.00  tickets,  on  sale  at  eastern  and  western  termini  between  dates  first 
named  above,  at  Livingston  May  3ist  to  September  3oth,  both  dates  inclusive,  are  good  if  used 
in  the  Park  any  time  between  June  ist  and  October  6th,  both  dates  inclusive,  and  do  not  require 
identification  of  purchaser. 

The  hotel  service  in  the  Park  is  now  very  complete.  Tourists  can  stop  at  any  of  the  principal 
points  of  interest  with  the  assurance  that  comfortable  accommodations  will  be  supplied  them. 

MONTANA  AND  EASTERN  WASHINGTON  POINTS.— The  Northern  Pacific 
Railroad  sells  daily  round-trip  excursion  tickets  to  Bozeman  at  $55.00;  Helena  and  Butte,  $60.00 
(choice  of  routes  returning,  via  Northern  Pacific,  Union  Pacific,  or  Great  Northern  Ry.  Lines); 
Missoula,  $62.50;  Spokane,  $70.00  (choice  of  routes  returning,  via  Union  Pacific  or  Northern 
Pacific  Lines),  and  Medical  Lake,  $70.00. 

These  tickets  are  of  iron-clad  signature  form;  require  identification  of  purchaser  at  return 
starting  point,  limited  to  90  days,  good  going  30  days  and  returning  30  days.  Stop-overs  granted 
at  any  point  within  limits  stated. 

To  Springdale  (Hunter's  Hot  Springs),  Mont.,  and  return,  $50.00;  on  sale  daily;  good  40 
days — going  limit  30  days,  return  limit  10  days. 

NORTH  PACIFIC  COAST  EXCURSIONS.— An  $80.00  Round-trip  Individual 
Excursion  Ticket,  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis,  Duluth,  or  Ashland  to  Tacoma,  Portland,  Seattle,  or 
Victoria,  is  on  sale  daily  at  points  first  named  and  by  eastern  lines. 

Tacoma,  Seattle,  Victoria,  or  Portland  tickets,  at  above  rates,  will  be  issued,  going  via  Cascade 
Division,  returning  via  Columbia  River  Line,  or  vice  versa;  Portland  tickets  via  either  Cascade 
Division  or  Columbia  River,  returning  via  Union  Pacific  to  either  Omaha  or  Kansas  City,  or  to 
St.  Paul  via  Union  Pacific  Railway  through  Sioux  City;  and  Victoria  tickets  good  to  return  via 
Canadian  Pacific  to  either  Winnipeg,  Pt.  Arthur,  St.  Paul,  or  Minneapolis. 

CONDITIONS. — Above  tickets  limited  to  six  months  from  date  of  sale;  good,  going  trip, 
60  days  to  any  one  of  North  Pacific  Coast  termini  named,  returning  any  time  within  final  limit. 

ALASKA  EXCURSIONS. — An  excursion  ticket  will  be  sold  from  eastern  termini  named 
to  Sitka,  Alaska,  at  $175.00,  which  rate  includes  meals  and  berths  on  the  steamer.  Tickets  on 
sale  May  Ist  to  September  3Oth.  Limit,  six  months.  Going  to  Tacoma,  60  days,  returning 
within  final  limit,  holder  to  leave  Sitka  on  or  before  October  3ist.  Tickets  will  be  issued  to 
return  either  via  the  Northern  Pacific  or  the  Canadian  Pacific  and  Great  Northern  Ry.  Lines  to 
St.  Paul  or  Minneapolis.  Usual  stop-over  privileges  granted.  Steamer  accommodations  can  be 
secured  in  advance  by  application  to  any  of  the  agents  named  below.  Diagrams  of  steamers  at 
office  of  General  Passenger  Agent  at  St.  Paul. 

A  NOTABLE  BOOK. — Perhaps  the  most  interesting  book  yet  written  on  Alaska  is  that 
from  the  pen  of  Mrs.  General  C.  H.  T.  Collis,  bearing  the  title  "  A  Woman's  Trip  to  Alaska," 
from  the  press  of  the  Cassell  Publishing  Company,  New  York. 

CALIFORNIA  EXCURSION  RATES.— The  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  will  sell 
round-trip  excursion  tickets  from  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis,  Duluth,  or  Ashland,  as  follows: 

To  San  Francisco  going  via  either  the  Cascade  Division  or  the  Columbia  River  to  Portland, 
and  the  Shasta  route  or  the  ocean  to  San  Francisco;  returning  same  route,  or  by  the  Southern 
line  to  Council  Bluffs,  Omaha,  Kansas  City,  Mineola,  or  Houston,  at  $95.00;  to  New  Orleans  or 
St.  Louis,  at  $101.00. 

To  Los  Angeles  going  via  Portland  and  San  Francisco,  and  returning  same  route  at  $114.00; 
or  returning  via  Sacramento  and  Ogden  to  Council  Bluffs,  Omaha,  or  Kansas  City,  at  $104.50; 
to  St.  Louis,  at  $110.50. 

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To  San  Diego  going  via  Portland,  San  Francisco,  and  Los  Angeles,  and  returning  same 
route,  at  $124.00;  or  returning  via  Sacramento  and  Ogden  to  Council  Bluffs,  Omaha,  or  Kansas 
City,  at  $104.50;  to  St.  Louis,  at  $110.50. 

Tickets  returning  from  Los  Angeles  or  San  Diego,  via  Ogden,  will  be  issued  reading  via  San 
Francisco  and  Ogden,  at  rates  $4.00  higher  than  returning  via  Sacramento  and  Ogden.  Tickets 
via  ocean  include  meals  and  berth  on  steamer. 

At  the  eastern  termini  of  the  southern  transcontinental  lines,  excursion  tickets  will  be  sold,  or 
orders  exchanged,  for  tickets  to  San  Francisco,  returning  via  either  the  Shasta  route,  the  all-rail 
line  to  Portland,  or  the  ocean  and  the  Northern  Pacific  to  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis,  Duluth,  or 
Ashland,  at  rate  $15.00  higher  than  the  current  excursion  rate  in  effect  between  Missouri  River 
points,  Mineola,  or  Houston  and  San  Francisco.  The  steamship  coupon  includes  first-class  cabin 
passage  and  meals  between  San  Francisco  and  Portland. 

Return  coupons  reading  from  Missouri  River  points  to  Chicago  or  St.  Louis  will  be  honored 
from  St.  Paul  or  Minneapolis,  either  free,  or  with  a  small  additional  charge,  according  to  the  route. 

These  excursion  tickets  allow  six  months'  time  for  the  round  trip;  60  days  allowed  for  west- 
bound trip  up  to  first  Pacific  Coast  common  point;  return  any  time  within  final  limit. 


General 

and  Special 

Agents. 


/  A.  D.  CHARLTON,  Assistant  General  Passenger  Agent,  121  First  St..  Portland.  Or*. 

A.  L.  CRAIG,  Assistant  General  Ticket  Agent,  St.  Paul,  Minn. 

B.  N.  AUSTIN,  Assistant  General  Passenger  Agent.  St.  Paul.  Minn. 

J.  L.  HARRIS.  New  England  Agent,  3O6  Washington  Street,  Boston.  MAM. 
E.  R.  WADSWORTH,  General  Agent,  21O  South  Clark  Street.  Chicago.  111. 
GEO.  R.  FITCH,  General  Eastern  Agent,  319  Broadway.  New  York  City.  N.  Y. 

C.  B.  KINNAN.  Eastern  Passenger  Agent,  319  Broadway,  New  York  City.  N.  Y. 
A.  D.  EDGAR,  General  Agent,  corner  Main  and  Grand  Streets,  Helena.  Mont. 
W.  M.  TTJOHY,  General  Agent,  23  East  Broadway,  Butte.  Mont. 

R.  A.  EVA,  General  Agent,  Duluth,  Minn. 

H.  SWINFORD,  General  Agent,  Railway  Station,  Water  Street.  Winnipeg.  Manitoba. 
A.  ROEDELHEIMER,  General  Agent,  corner  High  and  Chestnut  Streets.  Columbus.  O. 
G.  G.  CHANDLER,  General  Agent,  621  Pacific  Avenue.  Tacoma,  Wash 
I.  A.  NADEAU,  General  Agent.  Seattle,  Wash. 
\  T.  K.  STATELIER,  General  Agent  Pass.  Dept. ,  638  Market  Street.  San  Francisco.  Cal. 


,  C.  E.  BRAY,  3O6  Washington  Street,  Boston,  Mass. 
/  J.  H.  ROGERS,  JR.,  47  South  Third  Street.  Philadelphia,  Penn. 

L.  L.  BILLINGSLEA,  47  South  Third  Street.  Philadelphia.  Penn. 

GEO.  D.  TELLER,  44  Exchange  Street,  Buffalo,  N.  Y. 

D.  W.  JANOWITZ,  42  Jackson  Place,  Indianapolis,  Ind. 

A.  A.  JACK,  153  Jefferson  Avenue,  Detroit,  Mich. 

T.  L.  SHORTELL.  1O4  North  Fourth  Street.  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

J.  J.  FERRY,  132  Vine  Street,  Cincinnati,  Ohio. 

T.  S.  PATTY,  Read  Hotel,  Chattanooga,  Tenn. 

JOHN  N.  ROBINSON,  397  Broadway,  Milwaukee.  Wis. 

OSCAR  VANDERBILT,  4O3  West  Locust  Street,  Des  Moines.  Iowa. 

W.  F.  SHERWIN,  Elmira,  N.  Y. 

THOS.  HENRY,  128  St.  James  Street,  Montreal.  Canada. 

THOS.  RIDGEDALE,  79  York  Street,  Toronto.  Ont. 

T.  D.  CAMPBELL.  144  Superior  Street,  Cleveland.  Ohio. 

C.  G.  LEMMON,  2 1O  Grand  Central  Station,  Chicago.  111. 

FRANK  O'NEILL,  121  First  Street,  Portland,  Ore. 

W.  N.  MEARS,  621  Pacific  Avenue.  Tacoma,  Wash. 

W.  H.  WHITAKER,  St.  Paul,  Minn. 
\  R.  W.  QLADING.  Thomasville.  Ga. 

J.  M.   HANNAFORD,  CHAS.  S.  FEE, 

General  Traffic  Manager.  General  Passenger  and  Ticket  Agent. 

ST.   PAUL,  MINN. 


Traveling 

Passenger 

Agents. 


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